Peacock Pin Cushion Workstation by Donna Clements

August 2013

Embroidery Design: Embroidery Library Watercolor Birds and Feathers

Peacock Body Pin Cushion.

Finished size: approx 8 tall. 6x5 base area, depending on how you shape the feathers.
seam allowance, unless noted.
Read ALL instructions before beginning!

Body.
With right sides together seam each section of the body beak- head-bottom. Do
this for each side. You will have two sets.
With right sides of body halves together, starting at beak tip, stitch over the head
and down birds back toward bottom.
Again, starting at beak tip stitch under the neck toward the head to close beak. Stop
at head.
Add Gusset. With right sides still together place point of gusset at the end of beak.
Sew down each side toward the bottom of birds body.
Turn the main body right side out. Be sure to push the beak out. It will be fairly
snug, so be careful.
Base.
**I actually went back and added this step after everything was completed, the
weight of feathers and head would not allow this to bird to stay up straight on its
own.
Cut 2.5x4 piece of wood. (My scrap of wood flooring is about thick, so you may
need to make adjustments, if it is thicker.)
Sew base pieces right sides together. Leave one inch opening. Turn. Press. Be sure
to close the opening. Top stitch around the entire piece with a regular machine
stitch that looked feathery.
On the wrong side, center scrap fabric. As close to edge as possible stitch down two
long sides through all layers. This now forms an inner pocket for the piece of wood,
so that it will not shift in the pin cushion.
Assembling Body.
In preparation, make a small 4x5 inch bag of light weight scrap fabric and fill with
kitty litter. (I rough sewed, and did not bother turning.) Sew 3 sides. Fill. Leave about
1 inch head room. Sew to close.
Stuff the peacock by filling tightly with batting. When I reached the neck area, add
the kitty litter filled bag in the center of my batting.
Continue to fill with batting until about from bottom. Add fabric covered wood.

Peacock Pin Cushion Workstation by Donna Clements

August 2013

Embroidery Design: Embroidery Library Watercolor Birds and Feathers

Slip stitch edge of base by hand to attach. Wrap up as necessary the bottom to
cover unfinished body edge.

Holder for Tail Feathers.

(*In preparation, you may choose to do some optional decorative stitch pattern on your
fabric before cutting. I thought about this later, so simply embellished with machine feather
stitching after turning.)

Iron interface to one side of large and small pieces. With right sides together, sew
each set, leaving opening at top. Turn and iron. Close top, by turning in inch and
stitching. Place these two pieces aside.
Tail Feathers and detailing
*NOTE: IF you use the Watercolors Birds and Feathers Designs, the stitching is very dense.
You will want to use heavy stabilizing. I actually attached a piece of heavy weight cut away
with wonder under. You dont want any shifting while stitching and the denseness will
perforate the tear away, leaving the fabric without proper support for the entire stitch out.**

Stitch out feather design on fabric. Unhoop. Attach a piece of solid fabric (with
wonder under) over the back to cover the stitching right sides out.
Carefully, stitch around the entire feather and all fronds about 1/8 inch from edge of
stitch out. Be sure to stay on the outside of all stitches. Match the top tread to your
background fabric (not the embroidery design, you want this to disappear). Match
bobbin thread to back fabric for the best look.
Paying very close attention, (you dont want to clip your straight stitches or the
embroidery design) cut out around the feather and fronds to 1/8 of the straight
stitching. As much as possible, I even cut between the fronds.
Yes, you want some fraying. The straight stitch will stop most of it and support those
feather edge stitches. Also, you want those fronds to curl for that 3D look. It adds
lots of character, color, and light!
Attaching Feathers.
Play with feathers and grouping to find the look you want. Test and mark lay out
BEFORE you do any sewing/tacking. Carefully pin, if necessary.
Onto the large bottom piece of the prepared tail holder, tack from the bottom up,
one feather at a time. Just 4-5 straight stitches and reverse on the machine
perpendicular over the quill end. Once you have all in place, cover with small piece
of the holder. Stitch the two holders together across the top and two sides. You can
use a wide machine decorative stitch. It has a nice look.
On the birds body, slip stitch this in place for the look you want. (I offset mine to
the side at a slight angle so feathers would cascade down the sewing table).
**If you insert a piece of floral wire (before adding backing to feathers), they could
fan open and up.

Peacock Pin Cushion Workstation by Donna Clements

August 2013

Embroidery Design: Embroidery Library Watercolor Birds and Feathers

Peacock Eye.
Using the Watercolor Birds and Feathers full peacock design, I enlarged the eye to
the size I wanted. Sewed one on white felt. Flipped design and sewed a second one.
Cut, leaving about 1/8 border. Attached by slip stitch to bird.
**Note: this is what I did, but you have options. You could simply cut a piece of felt to eye
shape, attach, and place a colored head pin in center for iris.

Embellish Bird.
Package of blue/green colored head pins. I inserted these in clusters for head and
breast feathers.

Thread Catcher
Foundation holder.
Iron interfacing/pellon fleece to wrong side of fabric A. Right sides together, stitch
top and side seams. Turn and press. Leave bottom open.
Bag.
Stitch out embroidery design on fabric B for bag front. Centered on fabric.
Bag outside: Iron interfacing/fleece to wrong side of fabric. Right sides together
stitch side seam.
Lining: Right sides together stitch lining side seam.
Pin the foundation holder made from fabric A to the top edge of the right side of bag
fabric B. Center it on each side of the seam. Baste.
With rights sides together put lining inside bag matching seam. Sew the top of
fabric to the lining. Turn right side out with lining in the bag. Seams should be to
the center back.
Place tube into top seam joint of bag. Center the tube in the bag fabric (opposite
the seam) toward the front to hold the bag open. Create a casing by stitching close
to tubing with zipper foot and on each end perpendicular to top edge (to keep tube
in place).
Sewing tool pocket.
Iron heavy interface/fleece to wrong side of fabric. Fold fabric in half, right sides
together. Stitch sides and bottom, leaving small opening on the bottom to turn.
Turn fabric right sides out. Iron, closing seam.
Center pocket (opening toward bottom of bag) onto inside of fabric bag lining at the
back. Stitch sides and bottom close to edge through pocket and all layers of bags.
In whatever increments fit your tools, sew straight parallel lines from the top edge

Peacock Pin Cushion Workstation by Donna Clements

August 2013

Embroidery Design: Embroidery Library Watercolor Birds and Feathers

of fabric. If you want any to be for shorter tools, simply add a horizontal line where
necessary.
Finishing the pocket.
Flip the bag partially outward, so you can place right sides of bottom edge of outer
bag together. Stitch seam from inside the bag. Fold lining in to the inside
creating its seam. Slip stitch or machine stitch very close to edge (it will not show
inside the bottom of the bag).
Bag should be complete.

Optional elastic holders.

Cut 1 strip of fabric. Seam long edge. Turn. Press with seam to bottom
(centered).
Cut to 5 inches. Insert length of elastic. With machine, catch stitch first edge to hold
in place. Stretch slightly while gathering fabric to desired length and fullness. With
machine, catch stitch second end of elastic.
Stitch in place (like belt loops) in desired place on the station foundation holder. Do
not stretch while sewing. Seam side down. Turn unfinished edges in as small as
possible, about .
You can make several small holders. Or you can make a longer one and divide it
into sections, with a simple straight stitch offset perpendicular to the edges.

Watercolor Birds and Feathers Color substitutions:

*Note: For sewing with the Marathon (Kolors) threads I had to tighten my tension from
normal setting of 50 to 60. For the oval water feather and full bird, I did slow down the
speed by one click on my machine, because I knew it was a dense stitchout. You might want
to test yours.
I stitched feathers first for practice and color selection. Then oval feather, to tweek that
background color effect. Finally, I stitched out the full bird. I was able to work on the feather
detailing, while the others items were stitching out.
**I am not sure proper protocol, but I clipped jump stitches at color changes. Due to the
detail, and layering, you do not want those little pieces of thread to affect layering and color .

Peacock Feather Oval H3137 XXL (This was done on the blue fabric, so had a
few major changes, you may choose not to use. The overall background was peach
instead of the multicolor. ) : cc1-2171Marathon, cc2/cc11-2404 Marathon, cc3-6440
Gutterman, cc4-2286 Marathon, cc5-2179 Marathon, cc6-2019 Marathon, cc7-3640
Mettler, cc8-6280 Gutterman, cc9-7230 Gutterman, cc10-8270 Gutterman, cc12-

Peacock Pin Cushion Workstation by Donna Clements

August 2013

Embroidery Design: Embroidery Library Watercolor Birds and Feathers

5729 Gutterman, cc13-8840 Gutterman, cc14-6655 Gutterman, cc15-1200 Sulky,
cc16-7251Gutterman
Peacock Feather H3142 XXL and H3145 small (2 xxl, of which one was
flipped 180 degrees. 4 small, 2 flipped 180 degrees. 2 resized down 20%
from the small size, 1 flipped.) cc1-3640 Mettler, cc2-6280 Gutterman, cc3-7230
Gutterman, cc4-8270 Gutterman, cc5-6440 Gutterman, cc6-5729 Gutterman, cc78840 Gutterman, cc8-6655 Gutterman, cc9-1200 Sulky, cc10-7251 Gutterman
Peacock H3133 XXL Full bird. Cc1/cc5-2016 Marathon, cc2-2404 Marathon,
cc3-2047 Marathon, cc4/cc28-2063 Marathon, cc6/cc27-1275 Sulky, cc7-2834
Marathon, cc8/cc21-2077 Marathon, cc9-2019 Marathon, cc10-2250 Marathon,
cc11/cc15-2191 Marathon, cc12-2015 Marathon, cc13-2022 Marathon, cc14-2021
Marathon, cc16 2179 Marathon, cc17-1001 Madiera, cc18 2125 Marathon, cc192032 Marathon, cc20-2127 Marathon, cc22/cc25-7251 Gutterman, cc23/cc26-8270
Gutterman, cc24-2105 Marathon, cc29-2086 Marathon, cc30-2012 Mettler, cc311200 Sulky