Needle and Pin Cards

Nothing is as homey as a sewing kit. Sewing supplies inhabit every kind of accomodations from a deluxe, multi-tiered wooden box purchased just for the purpose to tackle boxes, cigar boxes, candy tins, even Mason jars. My sewing kit is a vintage travel box in whipstitched tobacco leather.

Wherever you keep your sewing supplies, two items essential to it are probably hardest to keep track of: needles and pins. Pin cushions accomplish the task, but while working in a costume shop I learned a valuable insider's trick: spear pins and needles through squares of felt. To survive, a costume shop must be a model of efficiency, and an experienced manager can tell a lot about how to utilize new pairs of hands by how they manage the beginner's task of making needle and pin cards.  You see those felt shapes everywhere: in stacks speared with wide flat needles beside industrial machines, whipstitched onto lengths of ribbon and coiled around a seamstress's wrist, even hanging in spiral whirligigs off of cutting tables.

It's such a sensible idea: the wubby surface of the felt provides traction, and because the felt is soft the little devils are easier to extract than from the cellophane envelope or plastic wheel they are usually sold in.  So here is a simple project to create pretty and useful needle and pin cards out of felt. Keep separate cards for separate items: embroidery needles, mending needles, sewing machine needles, straight pins, etc. You can even stitch or glue a few of them together to form a booklet.

I use a rubber stamp to make a design on the felt, but you could cut out squares, rectangles or circles if you prefer -- any shape will work as long as it's a good size (see below) for the task.  Find shapes you like online, in the drawing program on your computer or from a plastic template.  I use a pattern of chandeliers both because the pattern, once inked, provides contrast to the metal pins and needles (again, helpful when you're working) and because this design, graphic and intricate at once, inspires me while I'm sewing. Make a few of these for your sewing kit, and perhaps you will find, as I do, that creating these small, useful items opens the door to the creativity that leads to larger sewing projects.

NEEDLE AND PIN CARDS

This version of the project is for making stamped felt cards.  Here is a good supplier for rubber stamps and ink pads; get stamps in shapes that inspire you in either 2 x 2, 2 x 3 or 3 x3 sizes.  While you're at it, get a pad of fabric-safe heat-set ink.  If you don't want to do stamped images, cut shapes from the felt (a plastic shape template is helpful) as described above, then proceed beginning with Step 5 below.

For five to six cards:
3 rectangles felt
Rubber stamps
Heat-set stamp pad
Scissors
Fabric glue
Iron
Paper for practicing (a paper bag works well) 

1.Heat the iron to its lowest setting.  Set up the ironing board or prepare an ironing surface by laying an old towel onto a heat-safe surface.

2. Ink the stamps and practice stamping on the paper until you are comfortable using it: how much ink the stamp requires to transfer the image, how much pressure to apply, etc.

3. Ink the stamps and stamp several images on 2 of the felt rectangles, leaving room around the images for cutting.  It is okay if not all images are perfect.

4. Lay the stamped felt on the ironing surface, images facing upward.  Lay the third piece of felt on top of this.  Iron on low setting for the length of time advised in the directions on the ink pad to set the ink; typically about a minute.  The ink is set when it no longer transfers to the protective layer between the image and the iron.  Turn off the iron.

5. Choose your favorite images and cut them out, leaving room on all sides.

6. Cut out smaller versions of the less perfect images. Position these on your work surface ink-side up and trace a thin line of glue around the edges of the cut-outs of the less perfect images.
 
7. Position the images you are using above the glued cutouts and stick the latter to the back of the former, creating a double layer on the back of the good image.  Set aside to dry, approximately an hour.

8. Once dry, insert needles and pins through the felt so that they are parallel to the surface of the fabric.  The ink, correctly set, will not rub off on the needles or your fingers.  Store in your sewing kit.