Tutorial: Make a Giant Pincushion Chair.

A few months ago, Mary taught us all to make simple little pincushions using The Purl Bee's tutorial.

This week I decided to make one 100 times its usual size for a stage in the Labs.

To make it, you'll need:
- a 6' diameter circle of red felt
- one yard of green felt
- one package of green 1" hem tape
- glue gun
- green embroidery thread and needle
- a HUGE amount of packing peanuts, plastic grocery bags, shredded paper and recycled polyfil

First, familiarize yourself with the Purl Bee's pincushion tutorial. You're going to be amplifying this recipe by a large amount.

Treat your large red circle as if you are making a small pincushion. Sew a loose straight stitch around the edges and then pull together to make a little drawstring sack. Stuff the packing peanuts loosely into the sack to give it some body, then sew around the top a few more times to make it really durable.



Stuff the pincushion/chair with everything you got. We filled it for an hour with every bit of clean trash we had in the Labs.



Keep packing it down and getting all the nooks and crannies (plastic bags and shredded paper are great for this) until it has a nice round shape.



Do not quit stuffing until the chair is dense and hard and holds its shape. You don't want a beanbag chair unless you're filling it with something other than packing peanuts and trash.



Use your glue gun to glue the hem tape along the sides of the chair (just like those ubiquitous strawberry ones) then cut out a "leaf" shape for the top of the chair.



Finally, tack the leaf shape down with glue and then whip stitch around the whole thing with embroidery thread.