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How to Make a Mason Jar Pin Cushion

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Inside: How to Make a Mason Jar Pin Cushion

Because I have this serious obsession with sewing pins I put together an almost no-sew pin cushion project. (See my Essential Guide to Sewing Pins here)

They make great gifts for sewing friends, teachers, table decorations, or sewing club gifts.

How to Make a Mason Jar Pin Cushion cover picture

How to Make a Mason Jar Pin Cushion

Supplies

  • 1 Mason Jar (any size works)
  • 6” X 6” Fabric Scrap
  • Batting
  • Needle and Thread
  • Hot Glue Gun + hot glue sticks
  • Piece of cardboard or felt
  • Scissors
supplies

Step 1: Prepare the Fabric

Round out the edges of the 6 x 6 piece of fabric. It doesn’t have to be perfect, either.

step 1 cutting

Take the needle and thread and make a loose running stitch around the inside edge of the fabric.

Or, set a sewing machine on the longest stitch length and stitch around the outer edge.

stitching
adding gathers

Gather the thread by pulling it up.

pulling gathers

Step 2: Add Batting

Stuff some batting into the fabric circle until it is nice and pouffy.

Hint: If you have any wool batting, this makes the best pin cushion stuffing because the lanolin from the wool helps your pins go into fabric better.

add batting

Put the lid into the bottom of the pouffy circle and then pull the gathering threads tighter.

Add more batting if it isn’t pouffy enough.

pull gathers

Step 3: Finish the Mason Jar Top

Hot glue the fabric to the bottom of the lid. This helps hold it all in place. Be sure to trim the thread tails.

hot glue gathers

Cut a circle of fabric from either the cardboard or felt. I traced the inner circle of the jar ring.

cut felt

Hot glue the felt or cardboard to the bottom side of the lid to cover the raw edges.

glue felt

Step 4: Fill Mason Jar and Enjoy

Push the pin cushion into the jar ring.

add to lid

Fill the jars with buttons, sewing notions, pins, or even candy.

finished jars

Top with some really cute pins.

finished jars

This will be the last time I use the word pouffy in this post.


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75 Comments

  1. Sew cute!!!! I bought several small sewing kits with the intention to make some of these mason jar sewing jars. I love your colorful fabric choices. I’m a new follower, and hope you’ll come over and visit altered-artworks.blogspot.com

    Doreen

  2. Leslie, I just finished making the pin cushion and wow is it cute, however do you have any tricks for making it easier to screw the lid onto the jar? Mine is not cooperating. Thanks for any help, this is a gift for my mom:)

    1. Great question. Try using less fabric folded over the edge of the lid; hot glue it to keep it in place. A few of mine first jars were really bulky and made it hard to screw the lid on. Instead of felt to cover your stitching, try cutting a matching piece of fabric. If you use pinking sheers it won’t ravel and will be really thin.

    2. Instead of using felt to cover where the stuffing goes, try gluing the whole thing to the LID that goes inside the ring, then glue the whole thing together. That gives it a flat inner surface that the ring likes and makes it easier to screw together.

  3. I used 1/2 of a styrofoam ball and then fiberfill over it–a lot smoother result. The ball needs to be about 1/2 the finished size of the “pincushion”. Glue the felt or fabric to a piece of thin cardboard (cereal box) and then to the bottom of the cushion–after trimming and glueing the gathered fabric very tight and flat–makes a neater finish. I put my bee’s wax, thimble and small measuring tool in the jar so I would have everything together for hand sewing. A very small pair of scissors would be nice, too!

  4. My daughter-in-love gave me a tall mason jar with this pin cushion top years ago. She filled it with standard sewing needs: small scissors, measuring tape, safety pins, thread & needles, buttons, etc. BEST gift ever!!!
    Thank you for such detailed simple instructions!

  5. Love this! They are so cute. I need a couple of birthday presents, so I know what I am going to be doing! Thanks for sharing. Pinning.

    1. I love the idea of setting them in a row, Robyn. I have som antique mason and ball jars that I keep old wodden spools in they still have thread. So that would be extra colorful to go with a colorful pin cushion
      Thanks

  6. Hi
    I love these little jars but how did you get the centre out of the top ,it looks so smooth.
    Thank you
    Sheila

    1. Sheila, Thanks for your comment. The center of mason jar lids is removable, making it perfect for this project.

  7. Hi found you thru a link at the Daily Blog of Alex Anderson. For some reason when I first come to your page the pictures are there and then just the text is left after a few seconds, is there a way to get them to stay?? I tried to refresh but it still happens..
    Thanks Katie

  8. I like this! This would be a cool idea for my daughter and I to make together. I love sewing and though I have a pin cushion, I don’t have a pin cushion as creative as this one. Thanks for sharing!

    1. How sweet. When I put it together I never thought about it being a mother/daughter project. Thanks for sharing.

  9. Oh this is great!! I saw this on Madigan Made and clicked on it right away. I picked up two mason jars at Goodwill weeks ago and hadn’t gotten around to looking up a tutorial to do this. Yours is so clear and easy to understand and I can’t wait to fix up my thread jar with a little cupcake print pincushion! Thanks so much for posting this!

  10. How can I print the directions please.
    Leslie i’ll never complain if you use pouffy. It perfectly describes the pin cushion.

  11. Have you ever tried using steelwool in your pin cushions? Apparently it keeps the pins sharp? Thanks for this- its awesome!

  12. Thanks for this tutorial! I made one in about 10 minutes. My father and I are giving my mother a wad of cash for Christmas to buy a new serger. I’m going to put pictures of sergers inside the jar and the cash inside that. It will be a very cute presentation! Thanks!

  13. Thank you, very nice tutorial. only one question: I did not understand if you have to cut and remove the central part of the lid.
    Many thanks and greetings from Italy!

  14. Lovely re-purposing idea! Definitely turning some jars in such pin cushions for my sister and mother, they’ll surely love those. Adding this post to my “reuse ans recycle” list and definitely sharing it to my friends. Greets!

  15. Hi! I found your mason jar pin cushion on Pinterest and thought maybe there was a snag in the pin somewhere because I couldn’t see the how to pictures. I finally found yOur site and the pics are missing here too! Is there a way to see the how to pictures?? Thanks for your help.

  16. Super cute !! We have a group of ladies that alternate hosting a craft evening and I am excited about making these for my turn. I already picked everything up including really cute fabric squares.

  17. My mom and I just made a dozen of these for Christmas gifts for the ladies in her church quilting group. They were quick and easy to make, and are soooooo cute!!! We are going to mold mints in the shape of buttons to fill the jars. Thanks for this great idea and instructions!

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