Homemade Christmas Project #4, Cupcake Pincushions

I love the cupcake pincushions that Betz White sells in her Etsy shop. Her blog is one of my favorite craft blogs to check in on so I was really excited to hear that her book was coming out and the Cupcake Pincushion pattern is in it. I headed to my local thrift shop and picked up some wool sweaters to felt and got so excited that I actually ended up starting this project before I got the book so my pincushions turned out a little bit different than her directions.

If your going to felt some old clothing, some pointers that I learned about felting from her book that I didn't read in my online research are:

• The sweaters must be at least 80% wool, and the other 20% must be a natural fiber. One of the sweaters that I tried was 80% wool but the rest of it was synthetic and it did not felt.
• Even some 100% wool sweaters will not felt. Read the care labels and the more specific they are (ie-hand wash, lay flat to dry, or dry clean only) the more likely they will be to felt. Also the finer gauge knit, the better.

I sewed the bottom of the cupcake "paper" instead of gluing it so I didn't have any raw edges so none of the wool actually needed to be felted anyway, and heavy sweater could have worked. The top picture is my first attempt and the bottom picture was my second. I definitely improved over time.

You can get the directions for the cupcakes in Betz's book, Warm Fuzzies. I used directions from her appearance on Martha Stewart to make the "whipped topping". She made really cute teacup pincushions on the show that you might also want to check out.