Compote Pincushion

A few months ago, I stumbled onto this picture over at Pinterest:

I loved the idea.  So very cute.  And I have a growing collection of decorative stick pins which come in handy for the linen pinboard that I made back in December. (Tutorial to come.)

So I decided to take some inspiration from this cute pincushion (in what I assume is a sweet little egg cup.)

My Mom and I went one weekend afternoon while she was visiting to a local thrift/antique store.  Within 5 minutes, I found a beautiful soft pink lidded compote.  I grabbed it.  But of course, I had to make sure I wasn't missing something better.  So we scoured the whole shop.  

There wasn't anything better suited for my project.

Isn't she lovely?

Granted, a little bit bigger than an egg cup...but I do have a lot of pins!
(You can see my pinboard in the background of the above picture.)

My next step was to find fabric.  And in my small town, that basically meant Hobby Lobby.  I picked three different patterns.  And once home, settled on a chocolate brown and soft pink damask.

I folded the fabric and stuck it in the compote to make sure I liked the total look.

So I began.

Materials needed:

Compote/egg cup/container for the base
Piece of fabric, size depends on your container. Mine was about 22x11 inches, folded into a square.
Square sheet of batting. (Mine was cut just slightly smaller than the fabric.)
Handful of loose Poly-Fil
Needle and thread and/or stick pins
Hot glue

1.  Lay fabric (cut to size) flat, right side facing down.  (Because of the thinness of my material, I folded it in half to make it more opaque. That's why the right side looks like it is up!)

2. Place sheet of batting over fabric and center Poly-fil on top.

3. Fold batting and fabric tightly over Poly-fil from top and bottom, to form a long rectangle.  Pin the fabric together and flip over carefully, so that you see the fabric on top.

4. If your fabric has a noticeable pattern repeat, choose the part you want centered in the "pillow." Then while taking care to keep the select spot centered, fold the open sides of the rectangle closed, to form a square.

5. Pin fabric closed and place in the compote to see the fit.  (below)

I found that it was a bit tedious to get all four sides with the same fullness, as evidenced above.  So, I fluffed and folded and fiddled with it until I was happy.

At this point, you could handstitch the fabric closed, if you so desire.  I found that my pins did a sufficient job holding it all together...and as naptime/quiet-time was over, the pins stayed put.  I love a project that doesn't necessitate needle and thread.  :)

Once the pillow is complete, you can use hot glue on the bottom and lower sides of the compote to make the pillow stay.  I found that with a square compote, the pillow was just slightly bigger than the opening, so it is securely "stuffed" in.  Additionally, I want the freedom to use the compote for other purposes (probably in the kitchen!) and wanted to ensure that I could go back and forth between uses easily.

I love pieces that multi-task!

If you have a round base for your pincushion, I recommend this tutorial.  And for more inspiration from the source of my inspiration pincushion, lookie here:  she has some other amazing pincushions and tons of great ideas on her blog!

Let me know if you try this out...I'd love to see your pictures!