Hi makers!

The holidays are coming to an end once again, so it’s time for cleaning, eating leftovers, and deciding on New Year's resolutions. One of my resolutions for this next year is to try and be more eco-friendly and reduce my carbon footprint as much as I can. I was recently shown these super cute pin cushions that use those scraps that almost always get thrown away due to no usage… selvages. Here at AGF, we have so many colorful Pure Solids with selvages that include the name of the color, so what a great idea it would be to make my very own color card out of pin cushions! Sure, an actual color card takes up less space, but this way is so much fun and a great scrap buster, so what’s not to love? 

For this project we are using the selvages of our Pure Solids in Sweet Fig, Hydrangea, Plum Preserve, Bewitched, and Amethyst.

Let’s get started! 

Cut your selvage pieces 5 inches long by 1 ½ inches wide. Cut your backing piece 5 inches by 5 inches. 

Sew your selvage strips together at a ¼ inch seam allowance. 

Press your seams in one direction. 

Place your selvages and the backing right sides together and sew ¼ inch all the way around leaving an opening to turn

Trim your corners and turn your pin cushion right side out, making sure to poke out the corners. 

Stuff your pin cushion with your choice of stuffing. I used polyester fiber fill, but you could use batting scraps, walnut shells, scraps of fabric, or anything else you have. 

Hand sew the opening closed and your pin cushion is ready to be poked! 

If you want to create the other versions, I listed each color I used for the other cushions below. 

Blue: Tranquil Waters, Parisian Blue, Tile Blue, Night Sea, and Nocturnal

Green: Icy Mint, Tender Green, Jade Cream, Emerald, and Peacock

Yellow: Honeydew, Lemon Tart, Empire Yellow, Turmeric, and Raw Gold

Orange/Red: Georgia Peach, Dried Carrot, Mandarin, Burnt Orange, and London Red

Pink: Candied Cherry, Weathered Brick, Dried Roses, Miami Sunset, and Blossomed

Black/White: Caviar, Magnetism, Steel, Ash, and Snow

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! It was a fun one for me to recreate and since I love colors, I had to make one from each color of the rainbow. These would also be so cute with selvages from a collection, or selvages from complementary colors. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or tips you’d like to share! 

What else can you sew with your selvages?

As always, please share your pin cushions by tagging us in your photo on social media with the hashtag #artgalleryfabrics! 

Happy Sewing!

-Karli