Housewife

Although I very much enjoy patchwork and knitting magazines, it is quite unusual for me to make anything from the patterns they include, but British Patchwork and Quilting for January 2011 has a pattern for what they call a sewing kit purse, but which I grew up calling a housewife, that I couldn't resist.

I already had the perfect fabrics in my stash. Recently a Malaysian visitor gave me a sarong saying she would show  me how to wear it. I think she was rather bewildered when my immediate reaction was to tell her not to bother as I would much rather cut it up for patchwork! I used that for the outside fabric and a another stash fabric for the inner fabric. Instead of  wadding I used a fairly heavy vilene to provide body.

Anyway, I cut out my fabrics on Boxing Day and started the quilting. Yesterday I expected to finish the quilting and be able to start the making up, but that was before the foot pedal on my sewing machine struck work. Now I'm stuck until a replacement arrives.

But I still needed my sewing fix for the day, so instead I made the little pincushion for inside the housewife. The only major change I made to this part of the pattern was the trick I use with all my pincushions.

When you use pincushions regularly you come up against the problem that putting the pins in in a hurry is apt to mean points sticking right through and out the other side. Then, when you pick up the pincushion you get stabbed with a pin end.

So for years I have been putting jar lids inside the base, between the fabric and the stuffing. Jar lids come in such a variety of sizes that if you save them you are almost bound to have the right size for the pincushion you are making. They give the cushion a firm base too, which stops any tendency to roll over.