I found this darling little wrecker-tow truck at an antique shop over the weekend for only six bucks. There’s some mechanism missing, disqualifying it from any serious collector’s purchase, but the second I saw it I thought “pincushion!”
If you look hard enough around your house, you’ll find many little unique things just begging to hold your sewing pins. Here are a few other things I found that could each hold a little pillow of fluff & fabric. The shorter the piece better, as when pinning, I find that taller pieces are a bit less ergonomic.
To make the pin pad for my truck, (ONE) I scanned an old ad from a 1954 Farm Journal magazine -the same era as my toy truck. I shrunk it down and printed it out onto the same ink-jet fabric sheet I used to make the luggage labels in the previous post. At this point you may choose to launder the printed fabric to soften it up.
(TWO) I cut a stack of felt to the shape of the bed of the truck to help retain the pad’s final shape. (THREE) I then used one of those pieces to gauge the trimming of the fabric pad cover. 
(FOUR) I cut out the fabric and rounded the corners, (FIVE) & (SIX)
sewed around the folded edges of the cover and filled with the felt and poly-fill stuffing. (SEVEN) & (EIGHT)
Then I gathered the cover around the fill, moving the gathers to the corners and knotting the thread once my pad was to shape. If you’re making a round pad, just even out the gathers or cinch all gathering tight to create a ball.
(NINE) Once I was happy with the gathers, I oozed E6000 glue around the inside of the truck bed (careful to avoid any open areas that would cause drips,) and placed the covered pad in place.(TEN)
And here’s my finished pincushion!
To see more recent truck pin-cushions, click here!
Wow – luv your creativity. Thanks for sharing yet another fab project xx
Okay, so I thought the luggage tags were awesome, now you have out done yourself. Absolutely adorable! Thanks for sharing.
Okay, that is brilliant. I am super inspired.
Thanks so much Cathe for sharing such a great idea! My Sis…15 years my senior and now in Heaven…bought a tiny little truck at a yard sale and kept it on the dashboard of the van. I saved it because she loved it…now I know what I was saving it for!
Have a blessed Easter week.
Susie
That is a clever idea!! It turned out great.
Amazing! You are so creative. Thanks for the inspiration
That is such a cool idea! I love it. I think I am going to have to look at my kids toys differently.
Thanks For Sharing!
Jennifer
That’s a great idea.Love the truck:)
~Andrea
You have such vision! That is just adorable. Thanks for sharing all of your creative ideas with us Cathe.
So cute and creative, Cathe!
When you said the shorter the piece, the better — were you talking about the height of the piece overall, or the depth of the area where your cushion will go?
This is a great idea — thanks for sharing! I’m going to be seeing new pincushion bases everywhere now.
Yes, Karin, I meant short as in height. I would be knocking over anything tall as if I were doing a lot of pinning on a quilt, for example, where I’m not really looking at the pincushion, just sweeping my hand back and forth from pins to fabric.
Thanks for all the nice words everyone, you keep me PUMPED!
Fabulous!!!
Now I’m going to be turning everything into pin-cushions (and I don’t even sew that much!)
Thanks for the fabulous inspiration, as always!
OMG! I loooove that! That is verrrrrrry cute! Very inspiring and creative!
This is the best thing ever. Now all I can see are potential pincushions around my house! Thanks!!
awesome idea!
thanks for the clarification. makes sense.
also, forgot to mention last time, I love how big the cushion is, as in surface area. the pincushions I have are all so small and it’s bugged me so often in the past. why did i never think to just make a larger one?!? : )
That is plum adorable!
what a cute idea!
LOVE IT!
These are great! Now I’m off to go find something that I can turn into a pin cushion! Thanks for the inspiration!
You’re on fire these days with the crafts! I need to send you some of my work:-) hee!
Cathe you are so clever, I would never have looked at a toy truck and thought to make it a pincushion! It’s genius… I’m off to find something offbeat to turn into a new pincushion all of my own now
Genius!
Oh the places a creative mind goes….. too cute. Love it!
this is brilliant!
thank you so much yet again for sharing another fab idea – i really must have a go at one of these… now i just have to find a cute truck!
I’m not sure if you know about the Pincushion Challenge (http://www.boogaj.com/pincushion_challenge/) but the theme for this month is Red!! I would love it if you would join!
Love it! Although I can see my 4 year old trying to take off with it! Creativity is your middle name!
How cool is that!? Always clever and creative!
What a great idea! How clever, I will have to start some of these with my boys rejects.
Thanks for sharing!
Suzy
Love this idea!
It’s amazing what you think to do with things, I’d have never looked at that and thought pincushions. But I like what you came up with!
I love it! I have just the car for it! Thank you so much!
This is just TOO cute. I can’t even explain how much I love it!
This is so adorable. I can imagine making these for people in my family that sew…maybe even one for me too (except I only dream of sewing…maybe one day). PS-thanks for the comment on my blog :). That night I was about to not write and feeling bad about my inspiration running dry and up popped your comment. It was enough to fire me up to write again! I peak in on your blog almost daily. Keep it up!
Soooooo Cute!!! I love it!
That is genius! And so thoroughly unique. Made me smile this Wednesday morning. Thank you!
Adorable!! Thanks for sharing this!
And your selling it? Cuz if you are, I’m buying… Seriously. Let’s talk…
What an adorable project…and so generous of you to share it! THANK YOU!
How clever are YOU! That is just too freaking CAUTE!! and SOOO you!!
I LOVE it!!
~TidyMom
Oh my goodness!!! That is quite possibly the cutest pin cushion I’ve ever seen!
Thank you so much for this WONDERFUL pincushion tut!! i LOVE the luggage tags too! Have a GREAT day!
This is the cutest idea! Seriously, what a clever idea! -e
How cute!
Have just scrolled down and found the pin cushions, then the labels! You’re really inventive.
Have just scrolled down and found the pin cushions, then the labels! You’re really inventive.
OMG
You are So COOL!!
So many great ORIGINAL ideas, I’m going to be here forever. I’m not even sure how I found this blog, but I’m a lucky girl!!
This is so great! And I love the tutorial. Thanks!
Agh! You’re a genius.
this is soo cool! I am posting it on my blog under "treasures"
Thanks!!
Thanks so much for sharing, I had a go at making a mini version <3
http://kittygardensmakes.blogspot.com/2010/04/mini-truck-pincushion.html
Kitty x
Wow!
I like this funny idea!
I'll make one, for sure.
hello there fellow Northern Californian!! I just happened to come across your blog and found a bunch of really cool and interesting things!! So thank you very much!! I use to live in Fairfield but now reside in Tracy!! I am going to add this blog to my favorites, so you maybe getting a little stalked!! heehee
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Absolutely adorable! This would fit in so beautifully with my vintage toy decor in my craft room!
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I featured this awesome Truck Pin Cushion on Fun Friday Finds. Thanks for sharing!
http://www.itsybitsypaperblog.com
This is really cute!! Thanks for sharing.
that is so awesome, thank you for sharing, love glenda
Thank you for this inspiration!
I did it this way: http://steffieshexenhaus.blogspot.de/2012/03/milchkannchen-mit-jeans-kombiniert-gar.html
Best wishes from Germany!
Steffie
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Love the antique truck pincushion. Very creative and so cute. I have been saving some cans and jars to try and make some pincushions but now I will be looking at other objects around me as potential pincushions. Thanks for the inspiration.
I’m planning on making a truck pin cushion for a friend for Christmas and was wondering what size truck you used for yours?
Thanks,
Michele
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