Beehive Pincushion and Honeybee Pins

I just love pincushions, they are whimsical yet functional objects that really reflect the users personalities. This beehive pincushion makes a lovely gift for the queen bee in your life. Dress it up with flowers or keep it simple and regal.  The bee pins are a functional but fun addition that will allow you to keep a little spring with you all year long.

You will need;

Beehive Pincushion

1- 9 x 12 sheet yellow felt I used Banana Cream Pie and matching thread.

Scrap of brown felt I used Saddle Brown

 Stuffing

Doll Needle or long sewing needle.

Optional

Felt flower shaped cutouts;

Star Shaped Flowers

Cypress Flower Shape

Flat black sequins (for flower center)

Baby’s breath sequins

Felt Glue

Bee Pins

Long sewing pins- size matters here the longer the better

Craft Glue suitble for plastics and metals – I used a product diffrent product for this project but I found “Amazing Goop” worked better than the Gorilla glue.

Shrink Film (printable inkjet is best)  If you can’t find it or don’t want to print you will also need a black fine tipped pen. Laser printers work with heat and cannot be used for this project.

Yellow markers or colored pencils to color bees

Felt Beehive and printable bee templates (at the end of post)

Beehive Pincushion

Cut banana cream pie felt into 6 strips of 1.5″ wide felt in 8″,7″,6″,5″,4″ and 3″ long. Cut Bottom and top from banana cream felt and set aside. Cut hive opening from brown felt.

Place long sides tether and overcast stitch up the side. Start this stitch about 1/4″ in leaving a gap  on one end as shown. It is easiest to stuff this as you go but using a chopstick or pencil will help you stuff it afterwards if desired.

Gather the end of the non gap side. Gather and sew through to make it easy to tuck.

Tuck gathered end into end gap, you will want to bend and work the stuffing into the right place to help it hold the circle. Sew through to hold (don’t worry we are covering this area with flowers.

Repeat with all beehive pieces.

Stack up the hive pieces from largest to smallest lining up the seams.  Run the threaded doll needle through.

Working your way around sew them together.

Once all the pieces are together sew desired flowers into place.  Accent with the baby’s breath sequins. Using felt glue add the hive opening. You can also sew this into place.

Add top with an overcast stitch.

Stuff or add a cloth bag of ground nut shells if you prefer.

Sew bottom onto pincushion with an overcast stitch.

 Bee Pins

Print bees onto printable shrink paper. Color centers yellow. Cut out bee shapes and shrink according to manufacturer directions. If you aren’t using printable shrink paper trace the bees with the fine tipped marker and proceed.

Glue bees onto pins facing various directions using craft glue.

I found the easiest way to do this is to put a pea sized dollop of goop onto a piece of paper and dip the end of the pin in and then lay onto the backside of the shape.

Let dry as directed and enjoy!

Beehive template PDF Download – Beehive Pinkeep

 

Happy Crafting! ~Andie

Can’t get enough felt pincushions, same.

Check out these free felt pincushion tutorials.

Felt Sea Urchin Pincushions and Sea Life Pins

 If you’re going to sew your probably going to need a pin or two and a place to put all of them. These little felt sea urchins certainly fit the bill!

But one word of warning if you start making these you may forget all about sewing until you have covered most of the surfaces in your home with sea urchin pin cushions and hundreds nay thousands of fish, octopi, and seahorses.

Summer sewing never looked so cute!

You will need

1- 9 x 12 sheet felt for urchin in any color you dang well please

(I used, Orchid, Peaches and Cream, Key Lime Pie and Peacock)

Flower shaped buttons (Optional)

Marching thread / Stuffing

Ball Pins to create urchin dots

Long sewing pins- size matters here the longer the better

Craft Glue – I used a product called Amazing Goop

Shrink Film (and low grit sandpaper if needed)

Markers or colored pencils to color fish

Templates (at the end of post)

Pin Cushion

Cut the circles from felt sheet, these guys go together pretty quickly, here’s the rundown.

1.  Sew around the outer edges with a basting (aka big ole sloppy running) stitch

2.Pull to create a bit of a cup and fill with stuffing.

3.Place smaller circle over the base and overcast stitch into place.

4. Turn over 5. Add flower buttons if desired.

Add ball pins to urchin in a star pattern.

Now for the big finish or fishish (sorry I couldn’t resist)

Sea Life Pins

Begin by prepping the shrink film, some shrink films are ready to go and need no prep otherwise you will need to prep it with a low grit sandpaper.

 Trace sea templates onto shrink film and color with permanent markers.

Cut out shapes small scissors work best for this. Try to cut away as much of the clear edges as possible.

Cut out the shapes and heat to shrink as directed. Shrink film shrinks differently depending on brand so your results may vary.

Glue fish onto pins with craft glue, I used a product called Amazing Goop – because how can you not use a product called amazing goop!

I found the easiest way to do this is to put a pea sized dollop of goop onto a piece of paper and dip the end of the pin in and then lay onto the backside of the shape.

Let dry as directed and enjoy!

Happy Crafting! ~Andie

Need more felty ocean fun? And come on who doesn’t?

DIY Seahorse hobby horse

Crinkle star fish toys

Branching coral bookmark

Felt Gerbera Daisies – Lazy Daisies of Summer

By far my very favorite flower has to be the gerbera daisy, it makes no excuses for itself, there is nothing subtle or demure about them even their colors are extreme and demand attention and as Auntie Mame so famously put it, “more is more!”

Enjoy the best of summer with this free gerbera daisy template and tutorial. And now you can share pictures of your creations on our Facebook page!

You will need:

Felt in your choice of flower color I used our new color,  Hot Pink

Scraps of felt in a deep yellow, Gold Nugget is used here, and a pale green, I used Granny Smith.

Thread in pale green color

Flip Flops, or anything you want to accent with these whimsical flowers.

Print out and enlarge this Template to the standard copy paper size.

1: Cut 2 each of templates A, B & C in your flower color choice.

2. Cut 1 of template D in deep yellow color

3. Cut 1 of template E in pale green color.

**For tips on cutting complex or small pattern pieces from felt see our blog post***

Now that the pieces are all cut stack them in order of size making sure that the petals fan out in different directions so that the finished piece looks fuller.

Step 3:

Place a small X with a running stitch through the flower, shown here in contrasting thread color for clarity. Pull threads tightly so the flower curves inward.

Step 4: You can now attach these to any project you like, to attach them to the flip flops as shown above simply attach the flowers to the toe posts as you would a button or use hot glue.

Try these on:

 A tank top

A handmade bag

Accent pillows

Backpacks

Lamp Shades

Headbands and hats

Stop by the Store

 Copyright American Felt and Craft for personal use only.

www.AmericanFeltandCraft.com

 You may also enjoy:

Felt Hydrangea Bouquet

Felt Rosette Accent Pillow Tutorial

150+ felt flower tutorials