Patchwork Underground

I’m so excited to share my new tutorial with you guys! It just might be my favorite so far. This vintage-inspired project is wonderful for using up those little scraps of fabric, batting and ric-rac you already have laying around the house. Throw an orphaned vintage button on top and you have a seriously cute pin cushion that looks good enough to eat!

Ever since I found this vintage yo-yo-faced pillow at the bins, I’ve been itching to try my hand at yo-yos. When one of my best friends, Lara, told me she was buying an AMAZING 1920’s farm house outside of Eugene, OR I decided to make her something to celebrate. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was going to make but she was moving in with her husband and her 6-year-old twins this month so the pressure was on. After some tinkering, I settled on a pin cushion…with yo-yos on it, of course! Here’s hoping it’ll warm her new home some.

~~~~*The Tutorial*~~~~~

Materials

• One 12” x 12” scrap of light blue fabric (or enough in any shape to make six 3.25”-diameter circles)
• Two 6” diameter circles of yellow fabric
• One 3.25” diameter circle of yellow fabric
• 12” of matching light blue ric-rac
• 2 buttons (one for the top, one for the bottom)
• Matching thread
• Pencil or fabric marker

Instructions
1 – Cut out six 3.25” diameter circles from your light blue fabric and one 3.25”-diameter circle from your yellow fabric.

I used the mouth of a Ball canning jar as my template for the yo-yos and just traced the shape with a regular pencil. You can use a fabric marker or chalk for this, too.

2 – Cut out the two 6” diameter circles from your yellow fabric. I just marked a center point for my circle, lined it up with the 3.25” mark on my ruler and spun the ruler around that center point, marking out the circumference of the circle as a I went.

3- Fold a ¼” seam allowance in towards the center of your yo-yos, pressing them flat as you go. Don’t stress about perfection here, any imperfections will be hidden in the gathers.

4- With a hand sewing needle and knotted thread, sew a running stitch all the way around the circumference of your yo-yo. Pull the string taut and make a few back stitches to secure the gathers.

5 - Flatten out the yo-yo, even out the gathers and press with steam. Repeat this process for all 7 yo-yos.

6 – Attach all of the yo-yos together using small whip stitches. I used one long piece of thread for this purpose and just hid the “jumps” on the reverse side of the yo-yos. (See picture) Remember to put the yellow one in the center!

7 – Attach the ric-rac to the right side of one of the large yellow circles before you join the top piece of the pincushion to the bottom piece. To do this, I lined the edge of the ric-rac up with the very edge of the yellow circle and stitched around the circle using a 1/4” seam allowance. In doing so, I only caught one side of the ric-rac in my seam, generating the “petal” effect you see in the finished pictures. When you’re sewing the ric-rac down, arrange the ends of the ric-rac so that the tails will be tucked inside the pincushion when it’s turned inside out. (See the second image below.)

8 – With right sides facing, sew the two large yellow circles together, using a 1/4” seam allowance again. For extra accuracy, I stitched directly into the line of stitching I created in step 6 when I attached the ric-rac. When you’re joining the top piece of the pin cushion to the bottom piece, make sure to leave an opening so that you can turn it right side out when you’re done.

9 - Turn the pin cushion right side out and stuff it with polyfil or cut up chunks of quilt batting. Whip stitch the opening closed with matching thread.

10 – Center the mandala of yo-yos you created in step 5 on the stuffed pin cushion. Pin it in place and tack it down using a hand sewing needle.

11 – Attach the buttons. To do this, I knotted a thread around a plain button and passed the thread through the bottom of the pincushion to the top so that the plain button was on the bottom of the pin cushion.

There, I passed the thread through my vintage button and back down through the center of the pincushion and through the bottom button again.

I went back through the bottom button one more time, pulled the thread taut so that I created a dimple in the pincushion and then wrapped the thread around the shank of that bottom button a few times, knotting it as I went.

(Note: You may be asking yourself, “Why two buttons?” Well, my inclusion of the bottom button is designed to take the pressure of the “pinch” off the fabric - otherwise, the knot would eventually pull through the fabric, undo the “pinch” and leave a nasty hole in the bottom of the pin cushion.)

12. Trim off any excess thread and you’re done!