I have a confession.
I hate throwing things away. No, I'm not a hoarder. I just prefer to re-purpose things whenever possible.
For example, for the past couple of years, my older nephews have had plastic bottles of soda by the pool at my In Laws' home. Their favorite thing to do with the lids is to flick them at each other attempting to whack someone in the head. While this activity with the bottle lids did manage to entertain those teens for a few minutes, the end result of Flick a Lid was pop tops all over the place which eventually just ended up in the trash.
Bottle and jar lids come in so many shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, unless you are going to reuse the entire container, the lid itself can't be reused because it's manufactured to fit only a certain type of bottle or jar. My busy mind said "There has to be another use!" so I googled and I found the inspiration that eventually led me to joining Craftster AND some of my first shared projects on this site.
How to make a Soda Pop Top Pin CushionFirst, assemble your materials.
You will need:
- a soda pop top
- scissors
- adhesive
- decorative bits - embroidery thread, rick rack, lace, small bits of trim
- fabric marker
- needle and thread
- coordinating felt or fabric
- a small bit of polyfil (not pictured)
Trace the top onto the felt using the fabric marker and cut it out. Also cut a strip of the same fabric that will wrap around the outside of the top which includes a 1/4" overlap. You want this strip to be about half again as wide as the top is tall.
Trace and cut a larger circle to become the top of the pin cushion. I used the top of a small margarine cup as a pattern.
Now you should have all of the felt cut out and are ready to decorate!
Starting with the strip, mark your overlap so that you know where to start decorating. I used embroidery thread to decorate because that's what I had on hand but you could use small bits of trim, rick rack or lace to achieve the same effect.
Next, decorate the larger circle. Here again, I added embroidery, but you could do some quick applique or even glue smaller bits to the top. Try to use some restraint in this step, especially if you plan to use the pin cushion. Also, be careful to not decorate within the outer 1/2" of this circle because your decorative work could become lost on the gathered underside of the pin cushion top.
Now, glue the smaller circle to the bottom of the soda top.
Dot glue 2-3 times along the side of the lid to glue on the decorated strip. Don't glue too closely to the overlap. If you do you, you won't be able to stitch it up.
Using a longer than required length of thread, stitch the bottom glued circle to the side and then work up the overlap of the strip. Leave any remaining thread dangling for the time being.
Now run a basting stitch along the outside of the large circle.
Gently pull the basting thread to gather the circle. Knot the basting thread so that the circle stays gathered.
Firmly stuff the gathered larger circle which will become the top of the pin cushion.
Add more stuffing to the decorated and covered soda lid.
Using the dangling thread from stitching the soda top, stitch the top to the covered lid with a simple whip stitch or a blanket stitch if you want that effect. To finish off this stitching, you can hide a knot by sticking the needle between the top and bottom layers of felt and out of the cushion top opposite of where you ended your stitching. Gently pull the knot to the inside of the top of the pin cushion and snip any extra thread now dangling outside of the top.
You have made your first soda pop top pin cushion, but the creativity doesn't stop here!
Take time to consider what other creations you can make by changing the size or shape of the lid.
For example, this is made from the lid of a large jar of p-nut butter.
From the lid of an apple sauce jar...
From the top of a box of my checks!
Let your imagination go! ...and here's one of my first shared projects. All of these are based off of soda pop tops!
