Pin cushion stuffing
 

Has anyone every use rice for the stuffing in their pin cushion. Or should I stick with sand or lentils for a filling?

Walnut shells; the finely ground variety.

I don't like to stuff anything with a food item because it attracts "critters". I like polyfill or even poly pellets.

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try the sand and/or polyfill.

I like to use emery or wool. I make wool pin cushions but winding wool yarn into balls and felting them in the washer and dryer. Easy to make and you can make them in lots of fun colors.

I agree...voice of experience...no rice ;) I'm going to try using steel wool, heard it would help keep pins sharp.

Might steel wool get rusty in a humid environment?

Hmmmm...good question. I guess I'll have to try and find out, unless there's another board member who might know...

As a FYI we use ground up walnut shells as a media for blasting (like sand blasting) in our business, we buy it in 50lb bags, nary a critter has ever opened or got into a bag of shells, I have no idea about rice, but I would be concerned about steel wool and rust.

I'm sounding like Debbie Downer here -

Can people with nut allergies tolerate being around walnut shells?

QueenBarbieJ ... for small pincushions, I have sometimes just chopped up (with a rotary cutter)
batting scraps and then stuffed the pinnie.

I don't like sand, for fear of the dust trail it can leave.
My Mom used to stuff her pin cushions with sawdust.



BearIG .... No DD about that ..... safety can never be over rated!
For sure it should be taken into consideration if someone who is allergic may be using it.

I bought some emery sand or grit. Seems like it was from ebay. The emery sharpens the needles and pins. I agree with the no food items. I've even had pins rust with the poly fill stuffing.

My son is allergic to wa Walnuts so we filled my pin cushions outside just to be safe. If someone has a tree nut allergy I would avoid them.

I would not use rice or any food items which would get bugs eventually. Rice inside the pincushion would also get mold on it if it ever got wet. I plan to use walnut shells in mine, maybe with some wool in there, too.

I have a question about the ground walnut shells. Does anyone else find that their pins are not "slick" when they've been in the cushion? Mine seem to have a film on them that keeps them from gliding smoothly into the fabric. When I wipe them off, they go in fine though.

My daughter is allergic to nuts so there's no way I'd take a chance on walnut shells. She had a full body hives reaction just from standing near a booth where nuts were being roasted. She was on 3 different meds for a week and it took 6 days before the hives stopped. I quit doing all swaps because of this trend of putting walnut shells in pincushions-I couldn't take the chance that I would get something that had been pinned by pins that were in walnut shells. Also, they are like wood so I can't imagine how they wouldn't dull needles.

Aren’t the pellets also used in weighted blankets so they should be able to add some weight if mixed with stuffing of easy sort?

I've used poly pellets with great success. no problems ever.

I like sand or poly-stuffing :o

I've used rice with no problems, yet.

I used rice in mine with no problems. Haven’t seen a bug near it in the 5 years since I made it. A friend gave me one filled with sand. It Leaves fine sand everywhere.

Have you considered FLAX Seeds. I would avoid rice. If it gets a little damp from spilled water or the cup of tea, it..... well it molds and gets stinky.

Poly pellets here, too, with no problems. Pins slide in and out easily.

Caution with walnut or other nut products. Some people are severely allergic.

I did some homework...okay...I used Google...:o Earlier in the thread I mentioned steel wool and there was a question about humidity. Haven't seen anything negative (so far) and one site recommended it for pins and needles in humid areas to keep them from rusting. Would it effect long term? No idea. One tip I did see was to put a heavy metal washer in the bottom of the cushion to give it some weight. Some sites are listed below if you are interested.

https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/art...hion-stuffing/
https://www.ehow.com/info_12002477_s...hion-with.html
https://jacquelynnesteves.com/what-s...y-pin-cushion/

I thought I read somewhere that many years ago women used the hairs that got caught in their hairbrushes as pin cushion stuffing. Apparently the natural hair grease helped keep the pins and needles sharp. Seems smart to me. I've been intending to try it for sometime, but always forget. I'm losing so much hair lately, I should try!

ETA I wouldn't give that pin cushion away as a gift though, lol!

I use ground walnut shells for the pin cushions I have made. Bought it at the pet store, sold for reptile or bird cage bedding. It is a nice weight for pin cushions. I've only made a few and they are for my own use, mainly decorative. So I don't know if the pins are affected. I guess if the animals are ok, my pins will be ok. If I were giving them as gifts or selling them to people I don't know, I would label them as made the a nut product.

My grandmother had a small container on her dresser to collect her hair.

Use English walnut shells---Black walnut will stain black.

Look for reptile bedding *made of crushed English walnut shells*. It's a lot cheaper than purchasing "pin cushion stuffing."

I'm with you, Irishgal. If my wool balls aren't big enough to fill my pincushion, I wrap a bit of wool batting to fill it out.

I've also heard of people using bird gravel. It gives some weight to the pincushion.

Leslie

I bought a zirkel magnetic pin cushion and made a pincusion cover to fit it. No stuffing needed. You can do that with other magnetic pin cushions. The pins are easier to pick up on a fabric cover instead of the hard surface.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. The suggestion of using a magnet I a wonderful idea. That would give it some weight on the bottom plus it will help pick up loose pins.

What a great idea. Thanks.

It seems like that it would take a lot of time to collect what much human hair. Hmmm

I use bird gravel, too. Adds some weightiness to the pin cushion.

I would use caution with the walnuts shells if there are food allergies. Last year a Canadian man died from inhaling dust from "sand" blasting as tallchick describes. Here's the CBC link with a news article.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...site-1.4368171