Make your own Cat Pincushion! These cat pincushion kits were designed based on a historical object in Linda Ford Wallace's legacy collection housed at TATTER.

These kits, offered in 3 color ways, include the following materials:

• cotton velvet for cat body
• cotton velvet for top of pillow
• Liberty cotton print for bottom of pillow 
•square of felt for flowers
• seed beads for eyes and flower centers
• silk wrapped bead for ball 
• small button for pillow
• crushed walnut shell for pillow and cat
• bag of emery
• cotton/wool/polyester fiberfill
• embroidery thread for pillow, nose, and whisker

You will need a sewing needle and your choice of sewing thread.

If purchasing the digital pattern, remember to print pattern pieces at 100%!

ABOUT THE PINCUSHION

Although people have used pins and needles for tens of thousands of years, both for stitching and fastening garments, the pincushion is primarily an object of the modern age. Pins were expensive, usually kept in protective cases of metal, ivory, bone, or wood. During the late Middle Ages, literary references for pincushions began to emerge across Europe. By the Victorian era they became much more elaborate, intended for display as much as use. The decorative pincushion is practical— it not only helps a busy stitcher keep track of pins but also sharpens them. Pincushions can be stuffed with walnut shells, sawdust, and powdered emery while still conveying the taste, humor, and status. Linda Ford Wallace’s collection alone spans over 150 years worth of pincushions set in porcelain, silver, iron, wood, and vegetable ivory bases shaped to look like shoes, cats, mice, and more. 

We chose this velvet cat pincushion both because it’s charming (Linda was a great lover of cat-shaped tools) and because it’s completely stitched. Anyone with access to a needle, thread, and fabric can make it. You can stuff it with fiber, making a soft little sculptural cat, or fill it with walnut shell and emery for a pincushion that sharpens and accompanies you while you sew! 

At TATTER, we love the objects in our collection. Each has a story which is woven into the material history of textile creation. By creating this pattern we hope to invite our makers into that story. We believe our tools should reflect the care and caliber of what we make, and we hope you will cherish your pincushion as much as we love Linda’s. 

ABOUT LINDA FORD WALLACE

Linda Ford Wallace (1948-2022) was an accomplished stitcher and collector of antique needlework and needlework tools. She was known and beloved in domestic and international needlework forums for her infectious love of stitching, her talent and expertise with a needle, her efforts to bring kindred stitchers together, and her warmth and patience as a teacher. Linda especially held dear the camaraderie of her close-knit group of stitching friends in Knoxville, TN, affectionately known as the “Stitching Sisters.”

Born in Dayton, OH, Linda learned embroidery and sewing as a young girl from her mother and grandmothers. While studying at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in the 1970s, she discovered counted cross-stitch, which would become her life’s passion. After getting her MBA, Linda enjoyed a successful career while continuing to nurture her love of needlework through study, practice, research, and 40+ years of collecting. She attended stitching events and classes around the world, including study at the Ackworth School in England. Linda enjoyed challenging herself with increasingly difficult techniques and projects, with particular interest in creating replicas of historical schoolgirl samplers. She also tackled miniature samplers, doll making, miniature rooms, and a painstakingly impressive sewing casket. 

Linda built an impressive collection of antique needlework tools and notions, with a special passion for feline designs and motifs. Alongside pieces of her own stitching, Linda’s extraordinary collection of over 400 items – including pin cushions, needle cases, thimble and pin keepers, sewing kits, bodkins, darning tools, tape measures, and more – are in process of being cataloged and can be viewed upon request.

Footnote: This pattern is for personal and non-profit use only. You may not sell an item made from this pattern. Purchasing this pattern constitutes agreement with these terms.