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Ball Jar Pin Cushion ~ Short Tutorial

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I wish I had made more practical, useful crafts with our children during their younger years.  Well-thought-out crafts help them gain persistence, hand/eye coordination, and planning skills, not to mention confidence, to be able to see a solution to a problem and fix it when the need arises.

This is an easy project to do with your young sons or daughters, approximately 8 years and up. It is an opportunity to teach them how to use a glue gun safely. All you need to make 1 pin cushion jar is:

~ any canning jar with the ring and lid

~ a glue gun and glue sticks

~ some pretty fabric ( approximately 6″ x 6″)

~ a pair of scissors

~ a big hand-full or so of fiberfill

~ and something to fill your finished jar with (buttons, little spools of thread, lace, or small sewing notions would all be perfect)

 

1.) To begin, remove the ring but leave the lid on the top of the empty jar. Place the handful of fiberfill on top of the lid to make a good sized puffy dome, distribute evenly, and lay the fabric over the top to create your pin cushion.

 

2.) Carefully replace the ring on top of the fabric, fiberfill, and lid.

3.) Screw the ring on 1 revolution only. Pull the fabric slightly taut all around the edges. Unscrew the lid ring, lifting it, the fabric, fiberfill, and the lid. Carefully lift it off the jar all together. This is the tricky part: You must push up under the lid, pressing it up into the ring to hold the fabric in place. Before cutting your fabric, you can always re-position the fiberfill if it shifts out of place.

Note: Your daughter’s smaller, less-practiced, hands may need your gentle assistance in holding the fabric and fiberfill in place until the ring is on and the gluing is done. Be sensitive to her desire to try; she may surprise you with her ability.

 

4.) Still holding the ring, fabric and fiberfill, and lid in place (see below), using sharp scissors, cut the excess fabric off leaving about 5/8″ edge all around. (sorry…bad photo 🙂

 

5.) Fold fabric down and glue-gun it into place. You will need to continue to hold the lid tight up into the ring until glue is really cool and set.

 

Fill your jar and screw on the lid. Now you can put in your straight pins ~ we found some colorful ones.

What a pretty addition to your sewing table or use as a little hostess gift when visiting!

These super cute mini-Ball jars come in a 4-pack and can be found in most supermarkets. Lehman’s carries a broad assortment of canning jars.

“And make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”        ~ 1 Thessalonians 4: 11-12

Thanks for reading!

Jacqueline
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Comments

  1. Very Pretty! And you have a lovely basket of quilting fabrics….they look quite inviting 🙂 love and hugs!

    • Hello, dear Karen! I’m glad you like it…you have such good taste that it is a compliment! thanks!

  2. This is a great idea!! I am going to make a few for next year’s Christmas gifts. I live in Pennsylvania and have two Amish friends and we exchange Christmas gifts. With the Amish they like useful gifts. I have already received dish cloths, dish towels, vegetables, canned goods etc. This will be very useful for them. Thank you so much!

    • Jeanne,
      Thank you. I, too, am always on the look out for something I can do that is really homemade. I am not very creative, so it usually helps to see it first! Lol

  3. What a pretty pin cushion, love those ball jars. I wanted to make something like this for Valentines day, but wasn’t sure how, thanks for the tutorial. I love the verse from 1 Thessalonians as well, I wrote that one down 🙂 Great post!

    • April,
      Thank you. They would be great with chocolates in them!! I can just see red and white hearts and Hershey’s kisses!!

  4. Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. My 9 year old daughter is always wanting to make items for her Grandmother and older sister for Christmas and birthdays. This will definitely be on the top of our list for this year!

    • It is so neat to see the eagerness in our young children to make something for others. sounds like she must have the gift of giving :0 So does our daughter. She out-gives me!

  6. I love these kind of ideas…simple enough for me to carry out! I do wish I had your lovely stash of fabric that I see there in that picture, though. {thou shalt not covet!}

    I hope you are having a wonderful start to your week, sweet friend!

  9. This is wonderful, thank you for sharing it. I have seen little plastic jars with pin cushion tops at Wal-mart for around $8 (way too much) and thought how nice it would be to make one with a glass jar instead. Now, I know just how to do it. This will be on my list of fun projects to do.

    • Jennifer…look in my sidebar scrolling thingy… your button is there…we made you one 🙂

      • Jacqueline~
        Thank you~I love the button!
        How do I use it?
        All this computer stuff is so new to me…
        I’ve been so busy after being out of town with the death of Dave’s dad and then coming back to catch up the business and homeschooling… I think I’m back on track now 🙂
        Your encouragement always bless me~

        • Hi, Jennifer,
          Well I am not sure myself, but we can send it to you and you can create a HTML code for it to put on your sidebar. My daughter made it while I cheered her on. I will ask her if we can send it to you somehow. Later, alligator…

  12. This is a great tutorial! What a fantastic use of old Mason jars. We’re surely got plenty over here (well, at my mom’s house!). Thanks for sharing. 🙂

    (Stopping by from Everything Under the Moon)

  15. How cute! I definitely want to make some of these for Christmas. Do you know what size jar you used? That looks like the perfect size!

    • Hi, Rebecca,
      These were the wide mouth which fits several different sizes. Those in this post (I don’t have the boxes which say specifically what they are) are pints, I think, or 1/2 pints. They are pretty small, anyway. I am glad you like them and can use the idea for gifts 🙂

  16. I’m very late in seeing this pretty project as I’ve just come across your blog.
    However, it’s the perfect timing for Christmas gifts for my sewing friends.

    Thank You!

    • I welcome you, Lori~ It was an easy and fun project; they make an appreciated gift. Have fun making and giving them!

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