I’m on a pincushion kick this week. I’ve admired the work of Jen Segrest for a while and finally made time to give her bottle cap pincushion tutorial a try. (Check out the great tutorial over at Craft Stylish.) And, wow, are these pincushions addictive. I was not able to make just one, so I decided to spread the word during my weekly craft segment on “Take Five & Company.”

Taking what I learned from Jen’s tutorial, I whipped up some little cupcake pincushions with seed bead sprinkles on top. My pincushions are so very basic compared to the detailed stitching and embellishments that Jen does, but I just started making these things two days ago, so I’m going to give myself a break.

The photo below shows the steps I took to make my cupcake. (If you want more detailed instructions see the tutorial I mentioned above. It’s really good.)

You can apply the same techniques and make larger pin cushions using bigger jar lids and bottle caps. Here’s one I whipped up using a metal lid as the base. (Note: Cotton is a little more challenging than felt when it comes to shaping pincushions.)

You can find more pincushion inspiration, including several bottle cap projects designed by Jen Segrest (p. 90) in the book “Pretty Little Pincushions” (Lark, 2007).