Porcupine Pin Cushion

I thought that I was pretty clever when I came up with this. Come to find out, people have already made porcupine pin cushions. But have they mistakenly filled them with disgusting artificially pork-flavored dried pinto beans? I think not. So here is Porc&Beans, the unofficial Prudent Baby mascot. The best part about Porc&Beans is how much my 2yr old wants to play with him even though he is stuck with 100 sharp objects. So fun.

Learn to make your own Porc&Beans Pin Cushion after the jump.



1. Download the Porcupine Pincushion Template here.

2. Cut out 2 side-views and 1 bottom-view from tan felt.

3. With sides pinned together whip-stitch from tip of tail to tip of nose with 3 strands of brown embroidery thread. Your stitches need to be pretty close together to hold the beans in later.


4. Add simple stitches for eyes and a satin stitch for nose, if desired.

5. Spread out the legs of your sides and align with bottom piece. (If he doesn't line up perfectly, feel free to trim him a bit.)

6. Whip-stitch top piece to bottom piece all the way around except for one leg (to allow for stuffing)

7. Stuff your porcupine firmly with stuffing.

8. Stuff the belly with (a few tablespoons, maybe?) of dried beans. You want the beans to be directly inside the felt of the belly. This gives the pincushion some stability.

9. Stitch up the last leg and tie off.