Soap bar pincushion

A page from Real Simple inspired my latest project...a soap bar pincushion.

In all my sewing, I still had my pins left in their original plastic pin box, which was annoying to say the least. I kept saying I wanted a super cute pincushion, and not just one of those strawberry/tomato things. 

To start, I bought a bar of handmade soap from the artisan market in Paducah where I sell my fabric bowls. The artisan who makes them had a dozen scents, and this one, mountain berry, has been in the craft room for over a month, and it's totally fragranced the whole area. And I supported a local crafter! You can use a brand name bar of soap, but this one was square, and I wasn't sure I could find one like it anywhere else. 

Then I picked out a fabric scrap I had in my stash. 

I squared off the fabric and made sure I had enough to wrap the bar in, just like you would wrap a present. To get things started with a crisp line, I stapled the fabric to the bar first.

Then I wrapped the other side over, stapling it tight as well. I made sure to tuck the raw end of the fabric under. I also added a strip of hot glue to secure the seam.

Then I continued folding just like I did three weeks before for Christmas. I added a few staples here and there to ensure tightness, but glued everything down and tucked in all the raw edges.

Finished end. I did the same thing on the other one.

When I was done, I had a wrapped package, but it was a tad plain. I thought about razzle-dazzling it up with some rhinestones, but didn't want it to interfere with the pins. So I cut a length of white satin ribbon to cover up the seams and the few remaining exposed staples, hot glueing it down (tuck in the raw edge!).

And there you have the finished project! 

I had picked out the purple fabric weeks ago, then for Christmas, my friend Jennifer MADE ME a wrist pincushion, which was next on my list of things to tackle. She made it completely from scratch, even hand-sewing where a machine would have made her life so easy! I love wrist pincushions to have a place to put my pins when I'm done sewing...my dear Desmond, brother, doesn't really like sewing over pins, so I have to take them out as I go.