I completed a little project last week! It’s one I’ve been hoping to complete since the summer, when I realized how helpful it is at work that I have a safety pin pillow with open safety pins stuck into it near my fitting area, but that at home I keep my pins closed and in a plastic container. The solution was simply to make a safety pin pillow for home that can also travel with me when I do independent work outside of my normal costume shop!
The pillow is about 6″ square and as you can see I have space to add lots more safety pins. (Plus, it’s squishy, and I like squishy things!) Really, safety pin pillows are genius ideas! It makes fittings so much more efficient to have pins easy to access and already open. Maybe you need to make one, too?
The Quintessential Clothes Pen 
Is there a reason you use safety pins for fittings instead of straight pins?
Well, at work actors tend to be more comfortable when I use safety pins, especially when they go to get undressed (plus, I know they won’t accidentally pull the pins out while getting undressed–it’s the sort of thing they would do and not even notice, and I do use safety pins to mark things and hold areas that need to have the pattern altered, etc.). At home, I use them when I need to wiggle out of something after pinning, or if I want to pin and then wiggle into something to try it on. (I also use straight pins sometimes, but I do tend to poke myself!) Also, regardless of where I am, I can leave safety pins in after a fitting and come back to the garment later without fear of poking myself because I’ve forgotten where straight pins are or I can’t see them. 🙂