We bought a grill and installed a new ceiling fan, and had blocks of styrofoam left from the boxes. I wanted to recycle the foam, but I had trouble finding somewhere to recycle it. I did find one business recycling company, but they would have charged $20 to recycle the small amount I had. So I decided to think of ways to reuse it instead. I remembered the last time I made a pincushion as a present for my mom, I used foam as the core.
This time, I didn't want to make a plain cube shape. A lot of pin cushions are spherical. A sphere might be the safest shape to stick pins in so you don't stab yourself, but I don't have an easy way to make a sphere. I looked at the foam I have, and thought about making a funny shape like a slice of bread or a wedge of cheese. I finally decided on a slice of cake.
It's pretty safe to cut foam with a hot wire tool or a knife. I used a miter saw because it's mounted to my workbench. There's a lot of dust to clean up after that.
After I cut the foam to shape, I created paper patterns. I drew around each side of the foam block, making two groups of shapes. The "cake" section is basically two rectangles merged together. Then the "frosting" part is two triangles linked by a rectangle. I added a seam allowance to the pattern for each section, and then cut fabric for each one. I also added a rectangle of interfacing to the cake section to make it fold perfectly.
I chose a multicolor polka dot fabric for the cake, because it reminded me of cake sprinkles. Apparently, the polka dot fabric and interfacing were from my great grandmother's fabric stash. The frosting fabric is a fuzzy striped knit. It would have been more interesting to have colored "frosting" but I couldn't find the right one.
After the fabric pieces were pinned together, I sewed two sides on the sewing machine. Then I tested to see if it fit on the foam. I sewed around the folded-under edge of the cake fabric rectangle, put the foam back in, and then Mom hand-stitched it to the frosting fabric.
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