Lagniappe

I used to hear this word all the time back when I lived in Mobile, Alabama. It meant "a little something extra", a little surprise gift.

Well, this pincushion is my lagniappe from the second Vogue 8676 jacket.

I had several little scraps of the wool jersey on the table, as well as my pinking rotary cutter and acrylic ruler, and I started thinking of those felted wool pincushions that I've seen amongst fiber people at sewing workshops. The wool is supposed to be good for the needles and pins.

Hmm, even if the fabric didn't mat when washed, it's still wool, and the scraps are small and going into the wastebasket anyway, and...

The next thing I knew, I had cut several strips that I began tightly rolling together. A few stitches later to secure the end of the last strip, and I had a pincushion. A nice, but very plain pincushion. Then I remembered that I had some "cell phone charms" that I'd bought at Rami Kim's workshop a few years ago. I threaded the loop onto a large darning needle, inserted it into the center of the roll, and secured the loop with a few more stitches on the bottom side. Of course, I could have rolled the end of the charm into the pincushion when I started the project, but I had to insert it later since I was improvising.