Little Hints

After sewing and stitching for so many years, I've begun to realize a few things:  sometimes there are better ways to do things and nifty ways to use items rather than their normal use. Here are a few little hints from found items. And occasionally there's a surprise!

My surprise was an old pincushion...you know, that ubiquitous tomato pincushion with the little strawberry dangling from it? One day I was using it while sewing up some smocked dresses and I saw that the stuffing was running out of the pincushion. The "stuffing" was sawdust, all over my table. It was time to pitch the pincushion but a little light bulb went on inside my head and I thought maybe I should check what might have disappeared into the center of the pincushion before I trashed the little guy. So I cut it open and dumped the contents onto a piece of newspaper....Lo and behold I found 53 needles that had been buried inside of it. Guess I didn't have to buy any needles for awhile!

This past week I was pinning dress underlining pieces to dress fashion fabric pieces and ran out of pins from my beautiful wool pincushion (a table favor from a Smocking Arts Guild of America National Convention). Again, the light bulb went on (I must have one of those CFL light bulbs in my head) and I thought I would find out if there was anything stuck in this one. After much squeezing, poking and prodding (and a couple of stuck fingers) this is what I retrieved from the wool pincushion.

 See the pins and needles I found? Several #8 crewel embroidery needles, one #10 crewel embroidery, and a few plain pins. Now I could refill my pincushion without wondering what was lost in the center.



One better way to use something (other than it's original use) was from a dental aid that my oral hygienist suggested that I use. The special little gadget (made by GUM) has a TINY pipe cleaner on the end of an adjustable plastic handle and comes in a cute little plastic box. It was time to throw out the gadget but I kept looking at the box thinking surely I could use it for something.....then I thought about my metal bodkins including my Pincher Bodkin (the third one down with the ring around it). I am always searching for them because they tend to disappear in my sewing stuff. Look how perfectly they fit in the box! Now I'll know exactly where they are when I need them.

Another odd but useful item are rubber gloves....you know, the ones for cleaning or washing dishes. Sometimes I'm using a long doll needle pulling thread or ribbons through pincushions and I just can't get a grip on the darned needle. There's no traction and the needle just won't budge. In comes the old, tired, ready-to-be-trashed rubbed glove. No, not the whole glove....just a part of it. I cut the cuff off of the glove and then cut that into small squares (about 1 1/2" square, see below). One little piece of rubber glove is absolutely perfect for gripping the needle and pulling it through the pincushion center.

So those are a few of my nifty ways of using items other than intended and surprise(s) from my pincushions. Do you have unique ways to use or re-purpose items?