I thought that I was pretty clever when I came up with this. Come to find out, people have already made porcupine pin cushions. But have they mistakenly filled them with disgusting artificially pork-flavored dried pinto beans? I think not. So here is Porc&Beans, the unofficial Prudent Baby mascot. The best part about Porc&Beans is how much my 2yr old wants to play with him even though he is stuck with 100 sharp objects. So fun.
Learn to make your own Porc&Beans Pin Cushion after the jump.
1. Download the Porcupine Pincushion Template here.
2. Cut out 2 side-views and 1 bottom-view from tan felt.
3. With sides pinned together whip-stitch from tip of tail to tip of nose with 3 strands of brown embroidery thread. Your stitches need to be pretty close together to hold the beans in later.
4. Add simple stitches for eyes and a satin stitch for nose, if desired.
5. Spread out the legs of your sides and align with bottom piece. (If he doesn’t line up perfectly, feel free to trim him a bit.)
6. Whip-stitch top piece to bottom piece all the way around except for one leg (to allow for stuffing)
7. Stuff your porcupine firmly with stuffing.
8. Stuff the belly with (a few tablespoons, maybe?) of dried beans. You want the beans to be directly inside the felt of the belly. This gives the pincushion some stability.
9. Stitch up the last leg and tie off.
Aww! He's cute! I even already have all of the stuff to make one, plus I AM getting to where I need a new pincushion.
your porcupine is so cute, AND child friendly, ha. why is he stuffed with pinto beans, i'm laughing so hard at Porc
Seriously funny. 🙂
Jaime – The beans give a little weight to keep him from sliding around when you push in pins… and if you put in like 1,000,000 pins, he wouldn't keel over. But if your question as why "Pinto" beans, they don't have to be Pinto, feel free to use any dried bean variety. And no, I didn't just put in the beans in order to call him Porc&Beans;.
Aww, this is SO cute! I've got to make one. I'll be linking as well.
Thank you for your post! I really love your blog!
That really cracks me up!!! How cuter. ~
Wow! It seems to be such a simple craft but it looks soo cute!
Anastasia
LOVE it!! I linked to your pattern & tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/free-pattern-porcupine-pin-cushion/2010/02/24/
–Anne
Awww that's so cute! Gotta find some brown felt now to make one!
It's awfully cute! This is the first time I've seen it and I say it's really clever idea. Thanks for the tutorial.
Now where the heck are my felt stash?
too cute! Thanks for sharing. Genius idea using the beans for stability.
What's the deal with kids and pin cushions? My daughter loves paying with all three of mine and I can't keep them away from her! I think these would be super cute Christmas gifts for the women in our lives that sew..
-Sylvia
Stock Pots
Porcupine pincushion…that's hilarious! Thanks for sharing him. I'm including this in my Friday Favorites this week!
Loved this little guy so much made them for everyone. Do you have an idea of how to make a 3-d cat pattern similar size of porcupine? Thanks.
[…] http://prudentbaby.com/2010/02/prudent-home/porcupine-pin-cushion-2/ […]
The link to Scribid for the porcupine doesn’t exist anymore. I finally get around to making him and DENIED. Could you send me the pattern, Please??
Oops. I tried to download but it’s gone. 🙁
Please tell us what happened to the pattern? I tried making it without one, but I am just not that talented.
[…] 26. Porcupine […]
I am older and lived through a time when most Christmas presents were make it or bake it gifts.I can remember making pincushions for many of my aunts and other female relatives when I was younger. We always stuffed our pincushions with either clean dry sand or dry rice. The sand kept the needle and pin points nice and sharp! It was the preferred stuffing in my day!
That’s a great tip, thank you!