Here’s the tutorial you’ve been waiting for! I just love my little Dutch windmill pincushion! I use it all the time, and for Christmas this season, I’ve been making one for an aunt of mine who also loves to sew.
I don’t advise this project for the absolute beginner; however, if you’re intermediate to advanced at sewing and would like to learn to embroider, this project makes a fantastic sampler (a project for practicing embroidery stitches).
Here are all the patterns and tutorials you’ll need to complete the project:
Here’s the printable pattern for your windmill pincushion:
- Free printable pattern for Dutch windmill pincushion
Here are some useful embroidery tutorials for making the pincushion sampler:
- Threaded backstitch tutorial for between the windmill’s walls
- Feather stitch tutorial for between the windmill’s walls
- Arrowhead stitch tutorial for between the windmill’s walls
- Whip stitch / whipstitch tutorial for closing the gap between the windmill’s walls and for closing off the roof and gables when you’re done filling your pincushion
- Algerian eye stitch tutorial for basic flowers
- Single loop French knot tutorial for tiny rose buds in the flower boxes
- Chain stitch detached tutorial for daisies in the flower boxes
- Blanket stitch tutorial for around the flower boxes
- Herringbone stitch tutorial for edging the flower boxes with greenery
- Basic couching stitch tutorial for edging the windows
- Whipped running stitch tutorial for edging the tiny door (basic couching will also work for this) or for making flower stems (sometimes called a “stem stitch”)
- Couched filling stitch tutorial for the “bars” on the windmill’s door
- Detached chain stitch tutorial for the dangling leaves in one of the flower boxes
- Rambler rose stitch tutorial for inside the flower boxes
I should also mention that the rambler rose stitch was also used for the center of my snowflake embroidery pattern for one of my baby doll dresses, so you’ll want to skip the arm extensions on the snowflake part of that tutorial.
If you really enjoy embroidery and you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you’ll see when my new embroidery tutorials come out:
The playlist you want to look for is called “Sewing Craft Ideas and DIY Tutorials” on my channel.
If you subscribe to my channel, you’ll see my recent posts in your YouTube feed whenever you go to YouTube, so if you enjoy these free patterns and tutorial videos, you might want to think about that option.
I hope you enjoy these sewing and embroidery adventures!
Additional Information:
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Some of my followers have wondered what motivates me to give my patterns away for free. First of all, I’m a librarian by trade. Librarians love free stuff! We believe that the more a person knows, the more enriched their life will be. So it may sound kind of crazy, but I want ChellyWood.com to become a sort of library of free patterns that help people learn to sew doll clothes.
If you’d like to learn more about my motives, feel free to visit my Chelly’s Books page.
Please be advised: when I get some time off from my job as a school librarian, I’m planning to develop a new layout for ChellyWood.com, and whenever you redesign something, it’s possible for stuff to get lost! So if there’s a specific pattern you’ve bookmarked because you want to make that outfit, I advise printing the pattern soon. Links may not work quite as well after I redesign my website.
My Gallery Page is the easiest way to search through all of my patterns to find what you want. Each image on the Gallery Page takes you to links for patterns and tutorials.
Need help printing my patterns? This link offers a tutorial showing you how to download and print my FREE patterns using Google Docs. (For the older print-a-pattern tutorial, which uses Microsoft Word, click here.) To review my difficulty scale (demonstrating how hard or easy a pattern is by the number of flowers displayed), take a look back at this blog post.
Please note: you must enlarge my patterns to fit a full-sized piece of American computer paper (8.5 x 11 inches or 216 x 279 mm) without margins, before printing.
My patterns are now available through “Creative Commons Attribution.” This means that I created my patterns (and therefore I own rights to them), but I’m willing to share them with everyone who will tell people about my website.
Here are some helpful ways to tell the world about my patterns:
- You can pin them on Pinterest.
- You can post or like them on Facebook.
- You can tweet about them.
- Use any other form of social media that appeals to you!
Are you new to sewing? I’ve got a playlist of tutorials for the beginning sewists on my YouTube channel. It includes video tutorials showing you how to do a basic straight stitch when sewing by hand, how to use the whipstitch to hem a garment, how to sew on snaps, and even how to design your own doll clothes patterns, for those who are new to design and alterations.
In case you haven’t heard, I have actually designed some commercial patterns for Lammily LLC. You might want to visit the Lammily website to see what they’ve got going on.
If your question wasn’t answered here, feel free to submit a question. You can also write to Chelly Wood at this address. I’m always happy to help my followers find what they need, so they, too, can make amazing doll clothes and crafts.