Monday, March 7, 2011

Bunny Slipper Transformed

Last week I showed you my son's old bunny slippers. I made a first attempt at turning one into a pin cushion.

First I looked at the bottom of the slipper.


I measured the width and length then drew an approximate copy to use as a pattern.


I drew my pattern on freezer paper, ironed it to a doubled piece of white fabric and cut out two pieces leaving a generous 1/4" seam allowance. Then I sewed the two pieces together leaving a hole for turning and filled it with aquarium rocks.


I think this 5 lb. bag of aquarium rocks cost between $3 and $4 at Walmart. I did open the bag and lay them out on a towel because they were a bit wet when I got them home. I'm not sure if the water was in the rock bag or from something else I bought that day, but I let them dry a good 24 hours before using them.

After filling the pouch with rocks I hand sewed the opening shut.


This went into the slipper first to give the pin cushion some weight. Next I added some stuffing to fill out the slipper a bit.


Then I made a little pouch for some play sand.


My sand is pink because it is Crayola colored sand. I asked my husband to buy me some play sand last year for some other pin cushions I was making. He came home with a 20 lb. bag of pink play sand! He said this was all Walmart had that day. Play sand is my favorite pin cushion filler because it fits well into any shape, it is cheap and it has some weight to it. I would prefer it to be "sand" color, but this pink stuff has worked out fine.

This pouch will be the part pins are stuck into. To make the pouch I cut two circles and a rectangle from my white fabric. My plan was to make a short cylinder, circles on either end with the rectangle in the middle. First I sewed the short ends of the rectangle together to make a tube. Then I sewed one circle onto one end of the tube. After struggling through this I decided that just sewing the other end shut after filling it with sand would be fine. My sand pouch looks like this.


With the slippers there was a lone baby sock.


I would prefer to use white or gray or blue or orange, one of the colors from the slipper, but this is what I have. I stuffed the sand pouch into the sock and then put it into the slipper.


Add some pins and I'm done!


I have not altered the actual slipper at all so all this can come out. I may try to locate a better color sock at some point, but for now I am using it as is.

4 comments:

Em said...

I love transformations and how fun is this one?!!!! Lynn, so cute!

Melissa ;-) said...

Very cute! Just don't tell your son you filled it with pink sand!

Mama Pea said...

Very cute! Thanks for the neat tutorial/demonstration!

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

How absolutely adorable.