Kanzashi Flower Pincushion

Good afternoon. I entered this pincushion with Kanzashi flower top (tools and instructions from Gina B Silkworks) into the Create and Craft Gallery and to my delight I won Crafter of the Month. How wonderful is that. I got a voucher for £20 which didn’t take me long to spend. I bought some yummy Tilda fabric that I had been eyeing up for a while.

Materials:

• 100% cotton fabrics (mixed red and white – was from Create & Craft but now out of stock)
• Recycled old button, tapestry wool and metallic thread (to make wrapped button)
• Small plain button (for the base)
• Narrow ribbon (gold satin) and faux gem (gold)
• Toy stuffing
• Bradawl (sharp ‘pointy tool’) and tapestry needle (to attach button)
• Kanzashi Project Card Pack
• Kanzashi Hanabira Ruler , Rotary Cutter and Cutting Mat (optional for cutting small fabric strips and squares)
• Kanzashi Flower Making Tool Kit (optional: Gluing Table, Glue Spreader, Turntable and Drying Station)
• Kanzashi Petal Holders (optional: includes Petal Holder and Medium Drying Table)
• Kanzashi Starch Adhesive
• PVA glue (clear drying) and GemTac glue (for gluing gems to fabric)
• Tweezers (for holding and manipulating petals)
• Needle and thread plus sewing machine (optional – could stitch by hand)

How it was made:

1. Four 3 ½ inch squares were cut from the cotton. Two pieces were sewn right sides together to make each cushion pad using a ¼ inch seam, leaving a small gap for turning. The cushions were turned out through the gap, stuffed and the gap hand stitched to finish.
2. The wrapped button was created by wrapping an old plastic button with wool and then weaving with metallic thread. I made this one a while ago using instructions from Gina’s Button Making Workshop Manual. A brilliant book covering thread wrapped buttons, ring buttons, knot buttons and embroidered buttons. Narrow ribbon was thread through and tied to the back of the button. A bradawl was used to push a hole through the pincushion stack and the ribbon passed through with a tapestry needle. A small plain button was used on the base and the ribbon passed through the holes and tied tightly to indent the cushion shape.
3. I used the instructions from Gina’s pattern card pack to make the Kanzashi Flower. I adapted the Maple Leaf Pattern and made 8 sets of petals using the pointed petal folding method. I used 30mm fabric squares for the outer patterned petals and 25mm squares for the inner plain red petals. I used the Hanabira ruler, rotary cutter and self healing cutting mat to cut the squares. These are not essential (you could use scissors) but if you like this craft these are definitely worth getting as they make cutting out the tiny squares so much easier and quicker. Tweezers really helped with the folding and manipulating. Kanzashi Starch is an essential to hold everything in place while constructing these.
4. Although not essential, I found the Gluing Table, Petal Holder, Turntable and Drying Table really helpful too. You sit the petals in a layer of Kanzashi Glue while building more (stops them pinging back open). Petals are then glued in place with PVA onto a scrap of cotton on the Turntable. The built flower is then placed on the drying table.
5. After drying the base cotton scrap was snipped close to the petals. Ribbon and the finished flower were glued to the button and a gem glued to the centre.