Cactus Pincushion (In-the-Hoop)

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had fun with little pincushion plushies, usually sticking pins into helpless little voodoo dolls and the like. However, it’s a bit more cheerful to have a pincushion sitting on your desk that is both thrilled to receive his new pins AND makes a great addition of flora to your workspace!

What? People always say plants brighten up a work area. No one said it couldn’t be plush flora. Most likely because no one else is weird enough to even think it’s a possibility. But we’re special that way! So, I’m going to show you how to make this super cute pincushion guy two ways, all plush or with a little terra cotta bonus. Either way works to make yourself a new spiky friend.

First, place your dieline templates on top of your fabric and cut out your felt shapes. Green is for your cactus pieces, brown for his little pot. If you decide you’d rather use a real mini pot, you can skip cutting out the brown pieces.

We’ll continue on with instructions for both, just know you can ignore me part of the time if you wish. ;) Not that you don’t do that from time to time already.

Here are your felt pieces ready to go. You need two cactus pieces no matter what. The felt pot pieces are up to you!

Get ready for the next step by hooping up a piece of tearaway stabilizer.

Here’s how this is going to stitch: first your machine will sew a dieline. Lightly spray the back of your first felt piece with adhesive, and lay it inside the dieline. Let you machine keep sewing. It will sew a tackdown around the outside, then stitch all the inside cactus detail, including his happy little cactus face.

Doesn’t he look just so darn thrilled to be here? Once your front piece is ready, unhoop him and tear him free from the stabilizer. Set him aside for the next step.

Now we put it all together! Hoop up another piece of tearaway stabilizer. Another dieline will sew. Place your back fabric piece in there, and once again a tackdown will sew, along with a few cactus details. This is the back of your little cactus. Grab the piece you stitched before (with his happy little face on it) and place it facedown onto his other half, like shown. You may want to lightly spray him with adhesive to make sure he doesn’t move around, but not too much, as you don’t want the front of him to be super sticky.

When you start your machine sewing again, a final seam will stitch your two layers together, leaving a little gap so you can turn him right side out and stuff him.

Once he’s done, un-hoop him and tear him free from the stabilizer!