The Old Pincushion

Shop news!!

2011-12-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

Good news & bad news I'm afraid.

Starting with the good news,

FREE SHIPPING on your total order if your order includes two or more patterns ore one Old Joy bear pattern!!! (worldwide shipping) shipping refund will be given after purchase in my Zibbet shop via Paypal.

Patina antique paint is available again, this time for a better price!

Also did I list new hand dyed Mohair's and will I expend my shop with more Bear necessities!
Not everything is in my shop yet so if you need something that is not listed, please just e-mail me!!
New in my shop are also the virtual Gift certificates, a perfect gift & nice surprise for your crafting friend or family member that lives far.. far away! Happy birthday gift certificates will also be available soon :-)

Yesterday I received the bad news!! prices of Mohair and viscose will go up next year :-( plus the white Schulte viscose 6mm is not going to be produced any more, there will be a new version, only longer pile and more expensive!! Luckily there is still Helmbold viscose in nice soft tones and... in White as well!

Did you notice that Mohair and viscose have a better price per larger quantity?

Wishing everyone a most wonderful Christmas!!

International Doll & bear fair blog post (Ahoy)

2011-11-22T03:04:00.000-08:00

Click on my bear to few my other blog and the photo's I made at the fair ;-)

Also;

FREE SHIPPING in my zibbet shop on your total order if your order includes two or more patterns!!!

Only until the end of November

www.zibbet.com/TheOldPincushion

New shop on ZIBBET!

2011-09-30T03:24:00.000-07:00

I just opened my new The Old Pincushion shop on Zibbet!!!
No listing fee and no sellers fee like Etsy charges, therefore you will find all items lower priced than the items in my Etsy shop!

So... save a coin and visit me on Zibbet :-)

http://www.zibbet.com/TheOldPincushion

Also new Mohair fabric available in beautiful Autumn colors, great for aged or Primitive bears!

Very nice priced as well!
Autumn offer-All three colors, 3 times 25 cm x 35 cm for $18,-
Or $ 6,- a 25 cm by 35 cm piece.

Wishing everyone a wonderful, sunny and creative weekend!!!
Vivianne galli

Happy Autumn!

2011-09-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

Treasury by Nichior.

2011-09-26T03:39:00.000-07:00

VACATION NEWS!!!

2011-08-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

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The Old Pincushion will be closed from August 15 to September the first
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International Doll & Teddybear Shows!

2011-08-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I signed in to join Ahoy in Rotterdam, the largest international Doll & Teddy-bear show in Belgium and the Netherlands! I'm also working overtime to bring along many .. many cute patterns, sewing kits, mohair's and much more to the show in Gent (Belgium), hopefully a few Hug Me Again bears & friends!

Ice cold Weekend offers!!!

2011-07-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

To cool your summer!!!

King of the ice ;-)

Dancing on ice ;-)

Fleur will be living with..

2011-07-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you for joining my Give-away Lotte, Congratulations!!!
If you could mail your address, I will place Fleur in a box and let her travel your way!!
Fleur will also bring you a Gift certificate..

I took two more notes from the basket!!

~ Yuliya
~Rosemary

I was so hasty with cutting, I think I cut the comment of Ozma a little to short!! sorry :-)
You will both receive a little gift plus Giftcertificate if you mail me your address!!

I think I'm going to keep these little comment notes I've been cutting, when I feel down I will grab one from the basket and will be smiling again in no time!!
Thanks everyone for joining my Give-away!! Taking the time to write these sweet comments, I absolutely enjoyed reading them!!! Fleur is happy & I'm happy!! Fleur would also like to thank Yama for keeping her company these last day's!

To celebrate my Etsy anniversary a little longer today, I have a special The Old Pincushion's 1 year anniversary sale!!!!

Further good news;
~ New Viscose, very.. very nice quality!!
~ New Percy kits are coming up! great color mohair, limited editions!!
~ Also a very nice two tone Percy kit from new Mohair..

Hope you'll all come and visit!!!

Vivianne Galli

1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SALE..

2011-07-05T23:51:00.000-07:00

Time to celebrate, time for a give-away!

2011-06-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Time to celebrate, time for a give-away!!

What am I celebrating?
Over a thousand sales in The Old Pincushion Etsy shop thanks to you!!! & also found out today that there is an anniversary coming up!!! I opened the Old Pincushion shop on Jul 6, 2010

My Give-away is one of my "Hug Me Again" creations this time, if you like my little Mohair piggy Fleur, join in to get the change to win her!

How to enter this give-away?

You must be a costumer of one of my shops;

www.etsy.com/shop/VivianneGalli
www.etsy.com/shop/theoldpincushion
www.speldenkussentje.nl/

Everyone who bought one of my bears or bear friends from me via e-mail or Ebay in the past are also more than welcome!! Can't believe I forgot to mention that??

And simply leave a comment on this blog post including your Etsy profile name, share this give-away news on your own blog if you have one :o)

This give-away ends on July 6, on this day I will draw the winner around 12.00 Dutch time :-) and eat cake! Winner does not have to pay for Fleur's travel expense to her new home.

Jama will be Fleur's companion for a few Day's, gets lonely up here you know, even with all those sweet comments, a girl like Fleur simply needs to chat and hug 24 hours round the clock!!

Fleur her details,

~ created from Mohair & wool felt.
~ fully jointed & has a really nice "Hug me again" weight

Publish Post

~ she has tiny Black glass eyes.
~ a fabric label on her back & photo tag

Goodluck & thanks for visiting!

Vivianne Galli

Special weekend offer!

2011-06-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

How to use the disc & cotter-pins.

2011-06-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

How to insert the head joint..

Place the cotter-pin through the hole in the disc, now lay the disc and cotter-pin in the fill opening.

Take a needle and strong thread, for larger heads I combine strong thread with dental floss.

Take the thread all away around the edge of the fill opening.

You should end at the spot you began, now pull the tread really firm so the edge of the fill opening closes around the cotter-pin.

Now go around the edge again to make it stronger.

Make a loop with the thread and take the needle through the loop twice, now pull really firmly! I alsways do this a couple of times so it won't go loose again.

Now you have a head with the pin sticking out, ready to be attached to the body part.

The head pin go's through the neck opening.

Open the fill-opening of the body and place the second disc over the cotter-pin.

Now curl both sides of the cotter-pin to make both discs stick to each-other.

Ready to receive the arms and legs :-)

Photo's of the arms and legs will be posted soon..

My New Dutch webshop!

2011-05-03T02:50:00.000-07:00

I have been working for day's and day's now, mostly very late evenings on a Dutch webshop "speldenkussentje.nl" it's still not completely ready but am working hard to get the final links to work! Language is only in Dutch at this moment, I thought it was important to create a place were people from the Netherlands or belgium could visit me in there own language.
What can you find at www.speldenkussentje.nl?

More Teddy bear stuff!!! (and it's friends)

~ All my patterns will be available here, hopefully all translated in Dutch soon :-)
~ I will offer lots of beautiful hand dyed Mohair's, (mostly hand-dyes).
~ Sewing kits to go with the patterns. The Sara kits will also have the Sara dress soon!
~ Quality glass eyes, all equal! no need to grab in the box to find at least one equal pair!
~Stuffing, only the heavy stuff, steel shot and tiny mineral stones.
~ Decoration, ribbons, roses and rusty deco for your little friend.
~ Primarily sewing stuff with the arrow pointing ad bears and it's friend :-)
~ It will also show my bear-show calendar soon!!!

I will also try to translate part of the blog posts in Dutch.. any time soon :-)

Come & visit us?
www.speldenkussentje.nl

Happy Tuesday special!

2011-04-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday Special!!!

2011-03-21T02:38:00.001-07:00

Why are patterns and kits sold separately?

2011-02-16T23:56:00.000-08:00

All the patterns & kits are sold separately, as you will be able to read in the shop announcement or item description. Why? some costumers would like to purchase more than one kit, but do not wish to pay for the pattern over and over again and they should not have to.

Happy Valentine's day.

2011-02-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Little inimini wooden lucky hart doll, for all costumer who bought or will buy something from The Old Pincushion shop that needs to be shipped :-)

( January/February gift and gone is gone )

Antique paint

2011-02-01T23:44:00.000-08:00

Antique Paint.

New Patina paint is available again, unfortunately did our Dutch post service TNT higher shipping costs the first of January!!

The shipping costs for a parcel outside Europe went up from 14 dollars to 23 dollars!!
However one small positive thing, they did change the weight from max 500 gr. into max two kilo's. Meaning I get to ship more bottles or items in one box for the same shipping costs!!
If your planning on getting a bottle, maybe you could combine with other items or share shipping, maybe you could find a friend or two who would also like to have a little bottle.

Making a vintage looking ruff.

2011-01-20T04:21:00.000-08:00

Previously I have been asked a few times, how to make the vintage looking ruff from the ribbons in some of my kits in my shop, so I thought lets make a few photo's when I'm working on a new ruff for one of my bears :-)

First take three ribbons in three different colors and make sure all three are equally long.

Now lay them all on top of each other and fold the beginning of the three ribbons inside.

Take a long needle and strong thread, pull the needle through the ribbons until your reaching the end of the ribbons.

Fold the end of the ribbons inside as well.

Now you have a ruff, I think it's still looking to new and perfect for my vintage and aged looking bear so I gave mine a coffee dye.

If you iron the ruff when it's still wet, it will make those perfect aged looking stains :-)

Now tie the ruff around the bear's neck, not to tight..

And finish with a cute little rusty bell?

I used two also coffee dyed and ironed roses plus a rusty key to decorate my ruff.

Mini Harlequin bears

2011-01-06T01:49:00.001-08:00

Cute little Harlequin bears!!
What do you need to make a little Harlequin bear your self?

~ The Chopper sewing pattern
~ A Harlequin sewing kit ( different color combination's available)

Both, pattern and sewing kits are available in "The Old Pincushion" shop or at my Dutch web-shop "Speldenkussentje"

www.speldenkussentje.nl
www.etsy.com/shop/theoldpincushion

If you do not wish to use the sewing kit, there is a little material list in the pattern, however this would be for a one colored little bear. I made a new list that should help you make a little Harlequin bear of your own.

Material list.
Short pile Mohair fabric in three colors ( about 7 mm pile)
You need about 3 by 8.5 Inch of fabric for the complete head.
Body, arms and legs about 3 by 6.5 Inch of each color.
A little piece of wool felt.

Discs and a cotter pin to attach the little head, disc size, 15 mm
Eyes, 5 mm Black or Brown glass loop eyes.
Strong yarn or dental floss to pull the eyes in the head.
Thin embroidery yarn for the nose.
Stuffing, fiberfill and steel shot to give the little bear a little weight.
Three colors of seam binding ribbon, about 17 or 18 inch long to make the ruff (decoration around the neck)

Tools to help you create your little bear.
~ Glue to glue your pattern onto the Sturdy paper.
~ scissors to cut the pattern & fabric
~ Non waterproof or Washable Marker to draw the pattern on the fabric
~ pincer to pinch/ close the loops of the eyes
~ long needle about 3 inch to go through the head.
~ A waterproof dark Brown fabric/textile paint that does not run out!!
I use patina/decorfin fom Talens, sometimes also available in my shops.
~ very small/thin pencil to paint around the eyes nr 00 and then softly rub it out slowly with a point of a piece of cotton cloth (non plushy!) or, also very handy one of those ear cleaning sticks, you know those?
~ A small screwdriver with a flat head. (only for mini bears) and a small children's chopstick for filling the bear parts.