18th Century Pin Ball

This pin ball is made after a type of pin cushion that was fairly common in the 18th century (1700s). Pin cushions in general date back to about the middle ages, and come in all kinds of shapes, with earlier ones more likely to be flat shapes like squares or hearts. This one is a round version with a ribbon around the center and a loop at the top for attaching to a belt or chatelaine. Simple ones like this had a ribbon around the center, but fancier ones might have a metal ring with a loop attached instead. I'm using printed cotton here, but the 18th century examples were often made of a canvas like fabric and embroidered.

1. 2 pieces of cloth, from about 3"-6" (~8-15cm) in diameter. (Linen, wool or silk would be more historically accurate, but cotton or even synthetics will still work). Mine was almost 6 inches and it came out pretty big.
2. Some 1/2" (~12mm) wide ribbon (or 1" ribbon folded in half, which is what I ended up doing) The amount of ribbon depends on the size of your circles, but unless you're making a really big cushion, about 1/4 of a yard should be enough.
3. Stuffing Material. Historical options include wool roving, sawdust or cut up scraps of fabric (which is what I will be using). You can also use more modern fillings if you like like poly-fill instead of wool or crushed walnut shells as a substitute for sawdust. You do probably need more than you think though, this needs to be stuffed until it is quite hard to be a good pincushion.
4. Sewing thread & a needle. (I'm using cotton thread because I have it, but linen or silk would be closer to the historical materials used)
5. Embroidery thread in 2 colors (Once again, I'm using cotton, but silk would be more historical!)
6. A small sharp type sewing needle
7. A needle with a larger eye for embroidery thread
8. Scissors
9. Pins
10. A compass or something to trace to draw a circle
11. Paper or cardboard

Use a compass or trace a plate or bowl to make a circle on some cardboard or paper to use as a template, and then transfer the circle onto your fabric and cut out 2 of the same size circle (between 3-6" or 8-15cm depending on how big you want your pincushion or how much fabric you have). I lost a couple pictures from the beginning of my process, but here is what it looked like before I did the transferring and cutting!

Tie a knot in the end of your thread and sew a loose running stitch around the outside of the circle, about 1/4" (0.5cm ish?) from the edge in order to gather it.

Pull the thread carefully and spread the gathers evenly around the circle to form it into a loose cup. Loosely stuff the cup with some of the filling material so that it holds its shape.

Tighten the gathers by pulling the thread until the circle is a bit smaller and the over all piece is kind of the shape of a mushroom cap. Do a little stitch back into the starting point of the gathers where the knot is, and tie off the thread and cut it off. You can see the pile of stuffing in one of the photos, you need a lot! That was enough for just one of the sides.

Once the shape is tied off, stuff that stuffing in as hard as you can (without breaking the thread!) and make sure you fill the sides up until they are quite hard. They should end up as smooth little mushroom cap shapes.

Whip stitch the sides of the ball together, by grabbing fabric from each side about 1/4"/1cm from the edge on each side and then pulling it tight. all the way around. It should make the fabric tight around the whole ball, and meet in the middle into kind of a solid ball rather than 2 separate burger bun looking things.

Stitch the ribbon over the seam between the two halves, forming a loop at one end that you tuck under, both to finish the loop and to leave a place for hanging. You can make your stitches pretty small by poking back into the fabric right next to where your last stitch came out, and then traveling forward under the ribbon.

This criss cross stitch across the ribbon shows up in the historical examples. I thought originally that it was just decorative, but it does actually seem to make the fabric tighter across the front of the pin ball, which makes the surface nice for poking pins into! To make the stitch:

1. First secure your embroidery thread under the ribbon loop with a knot. I'm using 3 strands from the 6 strand embroidery thread.
2. Move across the ribbon diagonally from where your thread started, and then poke some fabric on the opposite side of the ribbon, just over the edge of the ribbon, with your needle pointing back up toward where your thread started, as shown in the first image.
3. Pull the thread through, which will give you the first diagonal stitch as shown in the second image, and your thread will come out just above the end of that diagonal stitch.
4. Cross the thread over to the other side again, as shown in the 3rd image.
5. Put your needle in underneath where the thread crosses the edge of the ribbon, again with the point pointing back up toward the previous stitches, as shown in the 4th image.
6. Cross back over like you did in the first stich, and do the same on the other side, as shown in the 5th and 6th images.
7. Continue to do this pattern all the way around the ball, and then tie off your thread.

Repeat Step 8 again, but with a contrasting color of thread, putting the stitches in between the stitches from step 8. Your pin cushion is done!

Historical examples of pincushions were often given as gifts, and the pins stuck in them were often done so in a design or in text, with well wishes to friends, the celebration of a birthday, etc. I tried out a couple designs with the pins, but I didn't want to do anything too elaborate, since I indeed to take them out and use them!

I'd love to see what other people come up with.