My new sewing machine is lovely.

It is neat, and white, and still very clean. It currently sits on our dining room table which has now been dubbed "my sewing spot". The mister is being very patient and very lovely, and has even vacuumed up the bits of cotton that have magically found their way to the floor.

And so, I've been merrily sewing along to the tunes of various online tutorials and I happened upon this: a tutorial for an apple-shaped pincushion from Mollie Makes (their picture, below) and designer Jenny Dixon.














Aren't they sweet?

I made the smaller one on the right using scraps of pink and purple fabrics.

















In my enthusiasm I replaced the felt leaf with a fabric one (I just so happened to have a leaf-shaped piece of green fabric nearby which I sewed up and embroided with a running stitch) and I omitted the stalk because the button was a lot nicer. Also, I didn't have any brown felt or fabric.

So, this tutorial is easy peasy and can be found online at the Guardian. It was originally a tutorial from Mollie Makes magazine, and the templates can be found here.

The idea is to take six apple pieces (fabric pieces cut from a template and stiffened with interfacing) and sew them side to side to create a bauble with pointy bits. Then, you close up the bottom, stuff the apple, and sew the top closed. You add a button and sew through to the bottom to give it that pinched, gathered, apple look. Add a leaf and a stalk, and you're done. Or, sew up a leaf, ignore the stalk and add a bigger button. Mm, buttons.

It's so small, it's no wonder the picture above shows someone with a whole handful of them! It lives on top of my sewing machine (for now) and stores my hand-sewing needles. I think that apples like this should be made of out sensible apple colours and, while the pinks and purples are really quite sweet, they're possibly too feminine and not enough evil stepmother for my liking.