Stashbusting Sewalong: January theme Itty Bits

I haven't had much luck sewing anything during school holidays that I want to get done. Every time I try to get something done there always seems to be someone at my elbow telling me they're bored and need something to do. Number one child goes back to school tomorrow though, so I'm hoping my luck is about to change.

At the very least I thought I could do something that fits in with the January Stashbusting theme of "Itty Bits." I "pinned" a tutorial for a mannequin shaped pincushion a few months ago, printed it out, shrank it, and kept moving the printout from room to room in the hopes that it might get up and make itself. (Or something like that). I have some leftover fabric from some fat quarters that I used to do binding on the outside of these folders

that I made a few years ago, and thought that they would make great mannequins. I wanted to try out the pattern for shape and size though, so opted to use plain black fabric for my first go.

I didn't use much fabric with this one!

I don't seem to have much shape in this version, I would say mostly because I reduced the size. The original pattern calls for a quarter inch seam, and to allow for the difference in size I reduced this seam allowance to a 5mm seam allowance. It is a little hard to get it right when it's so small though. For my next version(s) I plan on giving my mannequin a lot more shape.

Fat quarters in the running for the next pincushions

The finalists for more pincushions

I even put all the pieces away for the next ones so they don't clutter my studio

The pattern suggests gluing on candlesticks for the base, but apart from some crystal ones, I have none in the house and haven't managed to find any in either cheap shops or second hand shops (not that I've looked much). I do have some fancy gold painted plastic bits from an old clock that I want to use though, but I'll save those for the next ones (see photos above). For this black prototype, I opted to use a wooden bead that I painted black to put on the top, which I glued on with a hot glue gun after running a gathering stitch around the top opening.

For the bottom of the mannequin I used one layer of a fairly thin cardboard to go inside the bottom, then I covered another cardboard oval with fabric, and hand stitched it in place on the bottom. With no candlestick for the bottom, this mannequin will just have to sit next to a sewing machine with no stand for now.

The black fabric I used is leftover scraps from some client sewing a few years ago, but hey, it was in my house, so I figure that makes it fair game for stash busting!

The finished project, with a sneak peak of the topic
of an upcoming blog post

You will be seeing more of these. After both kids are back at school.