While I would love to make and keep one for myself in the future, this will be headed to a different home. When I sat down to sift through my scraps to find large enough pieces, I came up with a fun version of a primary color scheme (plus green) - pink, yellow, green, and turquoise. The combination is pretty playful. I think it kind of ended up looking like a ball that a seal might balance on its nose! Or maybe an elephant should be standing on it? At any rate it reminds me of a circus.
I was really glad I've spent so much time in the past reading online about others trying out this pattern and finding that matching up the inner tube with the outer ring of wedges was challenging. After learning from their mistakes, I had no trouble at all! I didn't follow the pattern measurements for the length of the piece that makes up the inside cylinder. Instead when I finished sewing my wedges into a round, I carefully measured around the opening, added an inch (for 1/2" seam allowances) and used that number instead. As a result I also ended up modifying the interfacing size, and the sizes of the circles used to complete the proejct. All it took was a little basic geometry, improvisation, and some forewarning that it would be problematic. So thank you to everyone who has gone before me.
I found that I wish I had even stiffer interfacing, though I bought the thickest stuff I could find. I didn't have problems until stuffing at which point moving all the fiberfil around inside sort of bent the interfacing in a couple places making it more prone to bulging in. I have managed to smoosh it around to make it stay, but I'm sure over the life of this little guy the walls of the inside bucket will shift around some. I read somewhere that putting a coffee can inside while stuffing helps, but alas we have nothing that size -- pod coffee drinkers.
Speaking of little guy... little he is not! The finished product measures about 7 or 8 inches in diameter which is a pretty hefty size for a pin cushion! The great thing about it is that it is a convenient size to hold a bunch of things (rotary cutter, pins, needles, thread in the picture below) without feeling like they will tip out if you pick it up and move it. I have visions of making a bunch of these and having them live stacked up on a shelf. How cool would that look? I probably don't need that many pin cushions, though.
Want to know something funny!? I got this exact pincushion tutorial from the net, cut out all the fabrics and cardboard needed but I've yet to sew them together! The only difference is that, interfacing was not mentioned in the tutorial, do you think I should use some?
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