I had a bit of a panic last night when I realised it was less than three weeks to Tea and Tents, the WI camping and crafting festival. It was brilliant last year and I’m really looking forward to it, I’m even holding a workshop on silk-painting!

In a rash moment a few months ago I put my name down for a stall in the market place at Tea and Tents, this happens on the Sunday morning and lasts about two hours.Lots of members sell their handmade wares from jams or lemonade, jewelry, hats, bags, paintings…all sorts.

Only I haven’t got myself organised! I have a box of what I would call samples which I can sell, but I need a few more things. I started pulling fabric and stuff from my shelves to get started.

I remembered I had three Kilner jars on my shelf waiting to be created with. I think these may be called Mason jars in other countries, they are the screw top preserving jars. I made a pin cushion out of one a couple of years back and I find it really useful, I use it just for needles, I keep the packets in the jar and the odd ones on top! I seem to remember it was quite fiddly to make though…

Perfect timing…this morning one of the blogs in my reader included a link for a tutorial by Nikki of Pin Cut Sew on how to make one…I got out my glue gun immediately!

I fell out with my glue gun last time I  used it but I think I’ve got the knack now, it sets almost instantly so you can only glue a small section at a time. The advantage being that you don’t have to wait for it to dry before moving on to the next process.

Nikki’s tutorial is nice and clear, the only bit I changed was when to glue the lid in. The Kilner jars have the disc in the centre of the lid and Nikki suggested gluing it down at the beginning. I decided to stuff it that way instead. I gathered the circle of cotton around the lid and glued it down all the way round. I could then stuff the pin cushion through the lid.

I did have a bit of a moment as to how I was going to keep the stuffing in whilst gluing down the disc but I had a bit of a brainwave! I cut a disc out of stiff vilene, I think it’s pelmet weight. I eased that through the hole and it tidily held the stuffing in place whilst I glued the disc down.

I used some tape measure tape and some cotton reel shaped buttons to trim them, though I’m still tempted to add a strip of tiny pompoms like Nikki did, they look so sweet!

I’ve still not decided whether to sell them just as pin cushions or whether to put things inside and sell them as a sewing kit.

So that’s three items made…at least I’ve started!