Cactus pin cushion with emery sand

I filmed everything

Process of making pin cushion with emery sand

But if you want to look at pictures, you're welcome to continue reading After researching information about needles and how to clean them, I realized that all my pin cushions don't have emery sand inside. While looking at the pincushions online, I saw that you can buy emery sand separately. And that's exactly what I did. Article about needles Article about storing needles

Supplies

I chose to make this pin cushion in the shape of ca actus in a pot. The upper part is for storing needles, the lower is for cleaning. So I needed some green and brown fabric. The rest of the supplies are what I already had:

thread scraps
fabric leftovers
scissors and snips
pencil by Prym
emery sand
sewing thread

sketched cactus for the size reference — Cactus sketch

The next step was to sketch the cactus for the size reference and I added cute red flowers to it. Then I placed fabric over the iPad and traced the cactus and pot adding the 0,7cm for the seam allowance. Next, I sewed the parts together by hand (didn't have a sewing machine at that time) with very small stitches. At first, I went with a running stitch, but then added one more layer of it finishing stitches closer to each other.

parts of the cactus pattern cut out of fabric and sewed together with running stitch — First layer of running stitch

Then I turned the cactus with the stitches facing inward and made a few Turkey work stitches for the flowers.

Turkey work stitch tutorial

The cactus was ready for filling. But I miscalculated a little and made it too narrow. I couldn't fit a finger into it, so I had to use my long tweezers. I filled it with thread scraps, and it was nice to see them disappearing and creating a new shape.

Filling the cactus with thread scraps using tweezers — Filling the cactus with thread scraps

At this moment I already sewn together the pot. Four sides and the bottom part. For the emery sand, I made a little bag using very short stitches to make sure the sand won't spill out. Next, I placed the emery bag inside, along with some thread scraps, and sewed the upper part of the pot. Both cactus and pot were filled and sewn.

Sewed and filled cactus and pot on the table — Pot and cactus are ready

The rest was easy, I sewed them to each other with the same tiny stitches. And made a sausage-like border for the pot. To make it look more like an actual pot. The best part is that because of the emery sand, the lower part is heavier and the cactus stands without any help.

Finished pin cushion standing on the table — Finished cactus pincushion

Hope it was helpful, for more insight into the process watch the video