Heirlooms Tomatoes & Pincushion Wristband

These heirloom tomatoes are so cute and a perfect little decoration! I have adapted the directions for this project from here.
*Sorry in advance for all the blurry pictures! The camera I was using just would NOT focus nicely.*

Heirloom Tomatoes
-3 different cotton fabrics for tomato body (I chose a deep yellow, orange and red)
-thread and needle
-cotton batting
-fabric glue
-felt for tomato top

1. Cut a circle out of your fabric. Mine were about 7 inches in diameter.

2. With the fabric wrong side up, sew a running stitch around the perimeter of the circle (having a knot at the end). When you've stitched the entire outside, pull the string to gather the fabric.

3. Stuff with cotton batting (good for pincushion use). Now stitch the opening closed with the left over thread. Tie off the thread on top.

4. Cut out tomato topping (template from the site above here), glue down the top onto tomato to cover stitched closing. 

5. Take the remaining thread, tie a knot at the end, and starting from the tomato top in center, thread the needle down through the entire tomato, out the bottom and back up. Repeat a few times. *Pull thread tight during this step* Tie off on top of the tomato. Running thread through the core (and keeping tight) should give the tomato a flattened heirloom look. *If you want to attach this tomato to a wristband, hold off on threading down through the core until you have your bracelet cover made. See below.*

This is what it could look like on the bottom of the tomato after the core threading.

Finished with the tomatoes!

Pincushion Wristband:

-slap bracelet (I searched every where and found one at Walgreens, not even a plain one)
-rubber glove
-cotton fabric to cover bracelet (mine is green)
-pencil

1. Measure and cut out a 2 3/4" x 9 1/2" fabric piece for your bracelet. Make sure it will fit the bracelet. You can also fold in half to size get the correct size. It should have some extra space on all sides for seam allowance).

2. Fold the fabric so the right sides are face to face, sew a 1/4" seam allowance down one long edge, and a bottom short end (leaving one short end open).

3. Cut fabric edging close to seam.

4. Turn right side out.

5. Slide slap bracelet into cover.

6. Sew the last side together, with the bracelet inside, and cut close to seam when finished.

Finished with the bracelet cover!

To attach a tomato to the bracelet:

For this bracelet I made the running stitch farther apart from each other to allow for more batting. I stuffed it fuller and didn't flatten into an heirloom shape as much, allowing more space and room for the length of the needles.

1. After threading down through the core of the tomato, thread through the top fabric of the bracelet and back up the tomato (may need to use a glove to grasp the needle to pull out if you stuffed it really full). I marked the center of mine so I would know where to thread. Don't pull thread tight until the very end!!

2. Thread back down through the tomato and the top of the bracelet fabric in an X formation, remembering to keep the thread loose.

3. Once you are finished threading through the tomato and the fabric of the bracelet (and your needle and thread are pulled out the top of the tomato), pull the thread tight. Tie off thread and you're done!

Finished pincushion bracelet!

Try out more pincushions here!