Tutorial: Altoids pincushin

I've been wanting to do this for a while.  I found an old stash of Altoid tins (I used to collect them...long story).  Every since I found them, I've wanted to do something useful with them.  Kind of a way of saying, "I told you I would need these someday," to my husband.  So, today, it all fell into place: Monkey went down for a nap, Goose is napping in her room being quiet, I finally had a moment to myself to get my craft on.  I just don't trust Monkey around the hot glue gun.  That would be just my luck, and then I would be banned from hot gluing anything by my husband.  Anyway, onto the good stuff...

(be gentle, this is my first time doing this...)

1.  Cut fabric to a 4 1/2 " x  5" rectangle.  This will give you enough height to stick pins in it, and enough to fold under the edges for a nice finished look.




This was before I cut my rectangle, so it's not to scale.

 2.  Fold and press a 1/4", first on the two long sides, and then on the two shorter sides.

3. Cut batting in a 9" x 10" rectangle.  This will make the thickness x4 when you stuff it later.

4. Start on a long side, hot glue the tin, not the fabric (that way if you want to redo it, it's easier to get the glue off the tin.  Plus it's just easier to handle.)  Attach the fabric to one long side and then the other.   Try to get the fabric as close to the lip of the tin as possible.  This is prevent any of the label color to show.

5.  Make sure you have glued the entire long side (all the way to the end of the fabric).  Then simply fold down one of the short edges and glue to the tin,leaving one end open.  Make sure you glue the corners too, otherwise they will flap around.  This makes a nice "giftwrap"  fold.


6.  Fold the batting to the size of the tin top.  Carefully stuff the batting into the "pocket", making sure you stuff into all corners.  Then follow the same technique as the other short side, and glue that end closed.

Ta-da!!!

And the best thing about it is that you can keep your pins in the tin!!!  Two-in-one, LOVE it!!  Pretty and functional.

Whoo, that was fun. Hope you like.