Petal Pincushion - Happy Dance!

Back in March, Christina and I decided to do this as a SAL (stitch-a-long).  I stayed up wayyyy past my bedtime last night to finish it!  After many pin pricks and a bit of freakin' frustration challenge, here it is:

Design: Petal Pincushion
Designer: Simona Bussiglieri
Magazine: Just Cross Stitch - April 2014
Fabric: 32ct Charles Craft Monoco - Dusty Rose
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: 1/8" satin ribbon, flower buttons, ric rac,
fabric-covered button

 

The design called for 28ct fabric, but since I am participating in the Stitch From Stash challenge... I chose a 32ct fabby from my stash.  This meant I had to calculate the measurements for every piece manually.

 

Here's what the original design looks like, in case you're curious:

 

 I swapped out the GAST and WDW threads for DMC.  I had several bobbins of the same green color number, but different dye lots.  I ended up blending them -- using one strand of each.  Doing the eagle eye  In scrutinzing the stitching, it's difficult to discern there are four different dye lots of green.

 

As I previously mentioned, this was a challenging piece to assemble because the instructions aren't that good.  Here are some tips if anyone wants to attempt to do this piece:

 

In order not to be wasteful of fabric, I recommend the following fabric sizes:

•  5 1/4" x 6 1/4" - 8 pieces for the petals -- This will give you an inch border around the stitching which is plenty.

•  3 x 3" - 1 piece for the fabric-covered button. I ended up cutting a lot of this off so you could probably go with 2 1/2" x 2 1/2".

 •  3 3/4 x 3 3/4" - 2 pieces for the bottom.  The design calls for a coordinating fabric for one of the pieces, however I thought it gave a more finished look to the project to use the same fabric I stitched on.

 

I ended up making a mattress pincushion for the inside instead of using the instructions given with the design.  I didn't do the backstitching before assembly.  Instead I measured for the seam allowance and then pulled one thread.  I then matched up the lines and sewed the mattress together.

 

A glue stick and fray check should become your new best friends.  Be sure to put fray check along the edges of all the material before stitching and assembly.  Trust me, it will make things go a lot more smoothly.  Even though the instructions say to "finger press" seams on the petals, I found it easier to use the glue stick to hold them in place.  I also used the glue stick to tack the ric rac in place before sewing the petal sides together.

 

Be sure to sew the buttons in place before sewing the petal sides together.  Also, put the ribbons in between the pieces before sewing the petals together.  The instructions say to do this afterwards, but I think it makes for a nicer finish to do it before hand.

 

The interfacing makes it a bit difficult to assemble, but I found that using a short, thin beading needle makes the job easier.  Be sure to use a thimble -- I can't tell you how many times pricked myself before getting out my thimble.  I recommend the thinnest fusible interfacing you can find.  I used Pellon brand.

 

Assembling this project requires a lot of hand stitching.  I used one strand of a DMC thread color that closely matched my fabric and used very tiny stitches so that they are barely noticeable.

 

Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

 

Until next time,