House Pincushion, In-the-Hoop

Add an adorable look to your sewing or crafts room with an in-the-hoop house pincushion. It's wonderful for keeping pins and needles close to hand while working on your embroidery projects.

Each pincushion design has four files. Two are the embroidery files and the other two are dieline files.Dielines are used to cut the fabric to the correct shape and size. Open and print each dieline file using an embroidery software. If you do not have an embroidery software, take a look at our helpful video on using dielines.

First prepare the fabric piece for the walls of the house. Cut around the first paper dieline (labeled with an "a"), and spray the back of it with temporary spray adhesive. Smooth it onto the quilter's cotton.

Cut out the shape, and repeat these steps for the roof.

Hoop a piece of tear-away stabilizer. 

Attach the hoop to the machine and load the full embroidery file "a" (not the dieline files). Use a size 11 or 75/11 sharp sewing needle, rather than an embroidery needle. A sharp sewing needle has a smaller, finer point than an embroidery needle, so that will make smaller perforations in the stabilizer. Embroider the design. The first thing to embroider will be a dieline, or outline stitch. This marks the area on the stabilizer where we'll place the fabric piece.

Remove the hoop from the machine, but do not unhoop the stabilizer. Spray the back of the fabric piece with a temporary adhesive, and place it right inside the sewn dieline.

Attach the hoop back onto the machine and continue embroidering the design. A tack down stitch will sew next. This binds the fabric in place for the remainder of the design. Once the fabric is stitched in place, all of the inner elements will sew.

Once the embroidery is finished, unhoop the stabilizer and gently tear it away from the edges. Make sure to leave the tear-away stabilizer on the back of the fabric piece as this will add structure to the pincushion.

Hoop a new piece of tear-away stabilizer and attach the hoop to the machine. Load the embroidery file "b", and embroider the roof following the steps above. When finished, tear away the excess stabilizer.

To assemble the pincushion, lay the wall piece of the house on the table wrong side up. Fold each of the four walls inward, making sure to lightly crease each fold.

Bend up two walls and hand sew the first corner of the house together. Hand-stitch from the bottom corner up towards the roof. You can also use glue, making sure to let every corner dry before moving onto the next one.

Continue bending up the sides and sewing or gluing each corner until the main piece of the house is completed.

Crease the bend of the roof and sew it onto the house, starting at the peak of one side of the roof and stitching or gluing around the edges. Make sure to leave one side of the roof open for stuffing.

Fill the pincushion with polyester fiberfill through the opening.

Sew the opening closed.

You can also create a wristlet using the pincushion designs. Start by finding a small piece of plastic to prevent pins from poking through the bottom. This tutorial uses a thin cutting board, but a small plastic lid will also work.

Before assembling the house, cut the plastic into a small square. For the small size, cut the plastic to 1 1/8" x 1 1/8". For the medium size, cut the plastic to 1 3/8" x 1 3/8". For the large size, cut the plastic to 2" x 2".

Using a glue gun, glue around the edges of the plastic.

Press the plastic piece onto the bottom of the house against the size with the stabilizer. Allow the glue to dry before continuing.

After assembling the design, sew or glue the house to a wristband, piece of elastic, or a ribbon.

Create this adorable pincushion wristlet to take your pins with you as you move around the sewing room.

Or, use it on its own to store pins and needles in your craft room or sewing space. A too-cute addition to any home!

A gingerbread house pincushion makes a festive accessory as you stitch all those holiday projects. Add a loop to the top and it makes an adorable ornament, too!