quick and easy spun cotton strawberry sewing pins
These sweet little strawberry pins are definitely the easiest and fastest spun cotton make I’ve shared so far - and because of those things, and because they’re so cute and practical - I also think they’re the most gift-able spun cotton project I’ve yet made.
Spun cotton strawberries have been done and done again and I’d guess they’re probably as old as the craft itself - so maybe it seems silly for me to share this third tutorial about spun cotton strawberries (strawberry ornaments were actually the first spun cotton project I shared on YouTube as a make-along several years ago) —- but strawberries never go out of style, right? They seem to have timeless appeal.
Today I’m putting a little twist on a classic.
I’m really excited about this idea - strawberry sewing pins are the perfect project for beginning with spun cotton - you can have a whole batch of pins in an hour or two, and because you don’t have a ton of time invested, and because they’re so simple to make, they’ll turn out cute no matter what - I’m almost certain you’ll want to share some of your crop of cotton berries with your favorite people…
This is also a great project for older kids who are able to be careful with the pins - my nine-year-old daughter Nettie joined me in making them in the YouTube make-along and hers turned out great!
They look so sweet nestled in a pin cushion. And I think they’ll make wonderful gifts for almost anyone who sews or crafts - I’m hoping to sew some strawberry pin cushions and needle minders to go with them as gifts - or you could give a little cluster of them in a vintage pin cushion you find at a thrift store - or just tuck several into a pretty scrap of old fabric and tie it up with lace. I honestly can’t think of many people who wouldn’t enjoy some tiny strawberry pins :) and the fact that they’ll be homemade makes them extra special.
To make these strawberry sewing pins, you’ll need:
cotton balls or other cotton fiber
straight pins - the longer the better but preferably 1.5” or longer
school glue like Elmer’s and water (mix your glue and water at 1 part to 3 or 4 parts ratio, so one tablespoon of glue would be mixed with 3 to 4 tablespoons of water)
paint and paintbrushes (I’m using acrylic craft paints today but you can also use watercolor or gouache or a combination of them)
aluminum foil (a good opportunity to recycle clean foil if you save it - i have boxes of chocolate wrappers I keep)
fabric or paper for the tops
wire (for stems, optional)
darning needle (for making a hole for the wire stems)
hot glue or craft glue (optional, not strictly necessary)
scissors
sealant like Aleene’s or Mod Podge (optional)
One thing I learned as I was making these is that there are multiple lengths of sewing pins out there - it seems like the most common sizes are 1.5 and 1.75 inches - use whatever you have that’s the longest!
begin by using a little hot glue to secure the pin head to the foil
Take your straight pin and a very small piece of foil (I always use the foil wrappers from the dark chocolate I eat but you can use any clean (as in nothing that would spoil), dry aluminum foil - place a small amount of hot glue on the edge of the foil and then lay the pin head into the hot glue and close the foil around the pin head, forming it into the shape of a small strawberry. Mine are quite small - they will grow when you add cotton so keep that in mind.
NOTE: Keep the foil shape as near the top of the pin as you can, to preserve as much of the pin length as possible. If you build your strawberry shape down around the pin length, you’ll be left with a very short, stubby pin that can be displayed in a pin cushion, but might not be long enough to use in fabric or pin into a needle book.
brush a little of the glue mix onto the foil shape
Now it’s time to add the cotton fiber - you can use cotton balls like you buy at the drug store, which is what I’ve used today - or you can use cotton quilt batting or the nicer spinning fibers if you have them, like cotton punis or sliver which you can find at The Woolery or Cotton Clouds or you can find those fibers in a starter kit in my shop.
Brush some of your glue mixture onto the foil shape and then take a small amount of your cotton fiber and wrap it tightly around the foil, using your brush to push the fibers down into shape. You only need as much cotton as it takes to cover the foil and achieve the shape you like - probably just a pinch or two from a cotton ball.
This is the size my berries end up - a little less than half an inch across.
Now you’ll probably want to make at least a few more while you’re at it so you can do all the painting and details in one go.
Once you have a handful or a saucer-full of strawberries it’s time to start painting - I think it’s easiest to paint them while the cotton is still wet or damp - the cotton absorbs the paint better this way. But you can try it both ways and see how you prefer it.
I’m using acrylic craft paint today, Folkart and Decoart Americana brands and I have a primary red and lipstick red color. The white is folk art “parchment” and the green I chose is “light avocado” by Americana.
I like to paint while the cotton fibers are wet but experiment and see what you like :)
Paint how you like - you can add white to the top or tip, or splotches of yellow or darker red, or if you want a primitive look you can age with some tea or coffee. You could do some green strawberries if you like that idea! (I wish I had thought of that before this moment haha)
I dry the berries before I paint on the white seeds so they don’t bleed. You can air dry for several hours or overnight or dry in your oven or toaster oven. I set the toaster oven on 250 for 5 or ten minutes for something this small. Or you can heat the oven up to 300 and turn it off and set the berries in for 30 minutes or so. Setting things over a heating vent or radiator speeds things up too.
NOTE: If you have trouble with spun cotton pieces sticking to the plate as you dry in the oven, a very good suggestion from a follower was to cut a raw potato in half and place the cut side down on your plate, then with these strawberry pins, stick the pin into the potato to dry in the oven. You can use that technique for other spun cotton pieces if you think of it beforehand and build your piece around a dowel or toothpick.. I also find that if your piece is dead-wet, that’s when the worst sticking happens. So try not to use more glue and water mix than is necessary and if your piece is so wet that you can squeeze water out of it if you pinch, you might let it air dry for a bit before using heat. Or add a bit more cotton on top to sop up some of that extra moisture.
While the berries are drying, prepare your tops (if you’re painting fabric or paper). I painted my fabric pieces with the green acrylic paint and then added a dab of coffee and a bit of yellow ochre watercolor.
If you’re using a printed fabric or paper that doesn’t need painted, you can make the tops any time.
I like to cut out the shapes I want, paint, and then dry with the berries. The fabric dries very quickly. You can use pinking shears and cut out a small circle or you can cut the sawtooth pattern yourself in an oval or circle.. or you can cut out strips of sawtooth leaves to wrap around the stem. I cut out individual leaves too. They all looked fine to me and I don’t recommend one over another.
the fabric leaf tops can be painted and then dried with the berries
The seeds can be made lots of ways - you can use a fine brush for tiny seeds or a larger one for larger 'dots’ - a toothpick might also work in a pinch. Or I think white gel pens would work or white sharpies. You can make your seeds other colors besides white too - some people used black pens or sharpies several years ago when we were making strawberry ornaments and they looked great! So feel free to use what you have and experiment.
The seeds are usually dry enough to handle after a few minutes so if you’re adding wire stems to your berries, use a darning needle to punch a hole in the top.
Then insert a small length of wire with hot glue, super glue, or craft or school glue. Add a bit more glue around the wire to attach your fabric or paper leaves. I like to make my tops a bit large or long so that I can “scrunch” the fabric around the stem but you might like the look of a flat top or one that is glued down smoothly.
At this point you can decide if you want to use a sealant - I demonstrated using a matte finish Mod Podge in the YouTube make-along and that seems to work fine. I also use an Aleene’s matte finish spray sealant for other projects and have good results with that. Sealant is not necessary if you don’t have it but for these, since I thought they might get more handling and “use” than some other things I make, I thought it was a nice precaution to preserve the paint or potentially the fabric they are used on.
And that’s all there is to it! Now you’ll want to make a few dozen more for all your favorite creative friends :)
Thanks so much for reading this and for your support and I wish you happy making!
xoxo
Rosanna
Make a mouse: spun cotton tutorial
“I think mice are rather nice,” begins the well-known poem by Rose Fyleman - it’s written for children and I suppose it’s meant to be funny and slightly tongue-in-cheek but I really do have a soft spot for mice, I always have - maybe it was Beatrix Potter who romanticized them for me with tidy little Mrs Tittlemouse and Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb in their lovely dollhouse - I just love the idea of them in a cozy house with tiny beds and foods and I still enjoy that fantasy - despite the fact that I know they can be very destructive and invasive and messy in real life... I’ve heard horrendous stories and cleaned up mouse messes that stayed in my nose for days haha but I still get excited every morning when I go out to the chicken coop, hoping I’ll see one or two tiny cuties for a second before they scurry into the wall.
Whether or not you find real mice nice, a spun cotton mouse really can be rather nice — without any qualifications at all - and YOU can make one for yourself with some very simple supplies and some time and patience.
I’m so excited to (finally) share with you how to make a cotton mouse — this tutorial has been long in the making but I hope it might open up a magical world of creation for you.
if you bought the supply kit and are wondering how to use the different fibers, you can watch this short video
Spun cotton ornaments originated in Germany during the second part of the 19th century so the craft has been around a while, but for many of us it flew beneath our radar until the past few years. I switched from needle felting to spun cotton six or seven years ago when I wanted to stop using all animal products - because it can produce similar looking results to needle felting - although the process is slightly different. (less pricking, more sticking, or at least sticky-ness haha)
The other reason I fell so easily into spun cotton was there was such a minimal investment - the supplies are very basic - in fact many of you will have everything needed on hand already.
Here’s what you need to make a mouse:
cotton balls or other cotton fiber (the tubes are called “punis” and the long fiber is called “sliver,” it looks like roving
wire - I prefer these narrow pipe cleaners and paper covered florist’s wire but you can use all pipe cleaners or all paper covered wire, whatever you have. 24 or 26 gauge wire is my preference
school glue and water - like Elmer’s (the cheap white kind, I think it’s called “PVA” in some places) make your solution 1:4 or 1:3 meaning one part glue to 3 or 4 parts water.
paint and paintbrushes - watercolors, gouache, or acrylic craft paints - I use a combination of acrylic and watercolor and coffee to achieve the look I like
black beads - (optional for eyes) OR the head of a stick pin or a peppercorn would be good substitutes OR you can of course paint eyes! I used these black beads.
scissors
optional: tacky craft glue and finishing spray like Aleene’s
also optional for ears: scrap fabric or crepe paper
I’ve put together a spun cotton starter kit if you’d like to try some of my favorite materials
Let’s get started
Take your pipe cleaner or wire and fold over a portion to form your “head” - this should be about 3/4 to 1 inch long to make a mouse that is about two or 2.5 inches tall.
Then wrap a length of paper covered wire around the pipe cleaner (wrap twice and that will help it not to slip around). Leave the wires longer than you think you’ll need for the arms, because they won’t look so long once the body is plumped out. And you might want your mouse to be able to hold things.. so you don’t want them to be tiny little stumps. or if you want tiny little stumps that’s fine too, it’s your mouse!
Do this for the bottom legs too.
Trim the pipe cleaner off, leaving a quarter or half inch extra to fold over. Add another length of paper covered wire for the tail, twisting around the pipe cleaner at least twice and folding the bottom of the pipe cleaner up over the wire to secure it. That’s your armature.
I am not giving precise measurements because you might want your mouse larger or smaller. The armature will give you a basic idea of the height of your mouse, just take into account a bit of added height once the cotton head and ears are added.
Now is the time to think about the posture for your mouse. Do you want it to look up at you, to the side, straight forward? Think about how you want to “use” your mouse or where you will keep it. I like to have an animal look up if it’s to display or to be engaging. But if you want your mouse to engage with other mice, then it will need to look more straight on.
Take several cotton balls and carefully unwind them, trying to keep the fibers in one long piece. This will make the “spinning” easier. Now take your unwound cotton ball (or cotton roving or “sliver” if you have it) and begin to wrap it around the armature, starting at the base and wrapping several times until you start to have a plump body. Keep wrapping and work your way up around the neck and head. If your piece runs out, simply dab the ends with a bit of your glue mix to tack the ends down and keep going. You don’t need a lot of glue at this point, just a bit will do. If you’re experienced with wrapping, you won’t need any glue at all.
(A reminder that your glue mix should be about 1 part glue to 3 or 4 parts water. You want it more watery than sticky, trust me - this will save you frustration)
Once you have a very primitive shape, you can wrap the legs and tail. This is probably going to be the most difficult part, along with the ears.
FIRST, make sure you trim your legs down to the length you want.
Take a long, thin piece of cotton -(not too thick or your leg will come out lumpy)- try to make the cotton a flat layer so you aren’t winding a thread or strand around, so much as a layer. This will wrap more smoothly. Hold one end against the body of your mouse and wrap tightly. When you get close to the end, put a dab of glue mix or straight glue on the tip of the wire, then finish wrapping the cotton. Tear off or trim the cotton if you have extra and then spin and wrap until the cotton is firm and smooth.
(If you’re using cotton sliver and punis fiber, you can do the tail and legs with either material. I prefer punis for the look and texture but it is not long fiber so it will be a little trickier than using the sliver.)
Now you can put a few dabs of glue mix where the cotton for the leg joins the body. Just to lightly hold it. This will be covered later so you don’t need to worry about it being very secure.
Do the same with the remaining legs.
You can see I make the top legs (or arms) almost twice as long as the bottom legs. This is so my mice can hold things if I want.. but you can do WHATEVER you like!!
The tail is wrapped just the same as the legs - but since it’s longer you will want to try to choose a longer piece of cotton. If you run out of cotton before the end, you can add another piece on, just make sure you add glue to the ends and continue wrapping in the same direction.
** If you don’t like the way your legs and tail turn out, just take off the cotton and try again. If the second attempt doesn’t turn out, give it one more try. Then I would say just take some deep breaths, acknowledge that this is a new skill you’re learning, that there are limitations to our materials and our abilities, and make peace with the leg! :) Wonkiness adds charm. None of us is perfect. And most of us don’t have the legs we want (grimace)
The tail and legs will have a small range of motion if you keep the wrapping thin - but now is the time to shape them into the basic position you want for the final mouse. The tail can move a little once the piece is dry but it will crack a bit where it joins the body if you make significant movements.
Fashioning the ears is also a fiddly job, you might have to practice several times before you get the hang of it. Take a small, thin piece of cotton and fold it in half so that the end is a small circle. Not a loop but an enclosed circle. Now take your brush with glue mix and wet the cotton and gently shape the edges against your finger. You are shaping it into a shell. The ears can look a little over-large at this point.
If you can’t get an ear shaped, you can absolutely use fabric. A plain cotton scrap will work well, simply cut out an ear shape, leaving a small “trunk” and attach with a dab of glue. Then cover the trunk with a bit of cotton to attach it. You can do the same thing with paper or crepe paper.
You can leave the fabric or paper as is or you can cover with cotton.
If you have a spun cotton ear shaped, you can attach it to the back of the head in the same way, brushing the cotton forward toward the nose. Add some cotton over the top to secure it.
Okay time for a little drying break!
At this point you might feel worried that your mouse isn’t shaping up the way you want - or you might be sticky - or need a cup of tea or snack. So set your mouse down and go wash your hands.
You have two options for drying - naturally and speed-drying. I use a toaster oven set to 250 F and bake my mice for about 30 minutes and then check to see if they’re dry. (I dry them standing up on a small plate, if you let them dry on their side you will have more issues with the cotton sticking.)
You can do the same thing in a regular oven set on low or set them in an oven that has been used and turned off. Leave them for 30 minutes and see how much they’ve dried.
Alternatively, you can set your mouse over a heating vent or radiator near a wood stove. Or near a space heater if you run one. If it’s summer time, you could set it outside (just make sure they’re not going to blow away or be carried off by an animal!) This will speed up drying significantly.
If you let your mouse dry naturally, it might take overnight. Or it might take a whole day, or even two… just make sure your mouse seems completely dry to the touch before you move on.
Now you can add your eyes if you’re using beads (or you the round pin heads or peppercorns). Attach them with school or craft glue or with hot glue. They will look crazy googly :)
Begin adding very small, thin pieces of cotton around the eyes and ears and add more to the nose area if you like. Keeping the layers very thin will prevent lumps. Keep going until the face is how you want and the eyes are no longer popping out :)
If you prefer to paint eyes and feel comfortable doing that, wonderful! You will add the painted eyes a little later.
Once you have the head and face finished, you can “flesh out” the body. Add plumpness and definition to the leg joints and give your mouse some haunches.
Take a good look at your little mouse. Make any additions you want.. then decide if you’re going to paint it wet or dry.
If you paint while the cotton is wet, the paint will soak into the fiber more and also bleed more - you will have less control over what the paint does. I prefer painting while the cotton is wet these days, but it may be too unpredictable for you.
If you prefer to paint your mouse after it dries, repeat the drying steps as before. This time may take longer, depending on how thick the wet layers of cotton are.
I start by painting the belly, chin, inner legs and nose and eye areas with an “antique white” acrylic craft paint.
Then I use a mixture of black and brown watercolor to paint the back and top of the head. To blend the brown areas with the white, I just dab with a wet paintbrush.
I also use coffee to tone down and blend white spots that are too bright.
Painting with watercolor doesn’t work for everyone. If the color isn’t dark enough for you it may be because you used more glue and this prevents the pigment from absorbing into the fiber. In that case, gouache or acrylic craft paints will be a better choice.
I also find that the cotton punis fiber paints more evenly and absorbs color in a more natural way. But as you see, I’m using cotton balls and it turns out fine with the watercolor. I suppose the type and quality of watercolor might also come into play.
Painting the ears, nose and cheeks is the most fun part, especially if you’re painting wet. I love to see the pigment draw down into the ear on its own, all I have to do is touch my brush to it :)
I use a mix of reds, pink, and yellow watercolor to achieve a peachy pink but I’ve also used a coral pink acrylic paint with good results.
To paint the nose and mouth area, you’ll want the fibers to be dry or very nearly dry or the black or brown paint will bleed and muddy up the white.
This also applies if you’re painting on eyes rather than using beads, you will want the face to be dry. If you’d like a demonstration of painting eyes, you can find that chapter of the video tutorial here.
Use your finest brush or if you don’t have a fine tip brush, try using a toothpick and acrylic paint. You could also use a fineliner pen. I use a size 0 brush and a mix of brown and black watercolor to paint a little crescent for the nose and a shallow “w” of sorts for the mouth. You can add a few “whisker freckles” if you like.
You can also add a few lines on the paws to denote fingers.
And there she is! Your little mouse. Made by you.
Celebrate what you’ve done and who your mouse is. Appreciate that a few hours or days ago, she was just a pipe cleaner and a pile of cotton balls. You brought her into the world. She may not look like what you had in your imagination, but she is the mouse you needed and that she was meant to be.
I hope this little mouse is only the beginning of a new creative story for you and that you’ll be inspired to keep making and experimenting and growing.
Thanks for being here and happy making!
xo,
Rosanna
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