Thanksgiving Decorations: Stuffed fabric pumpkins

Thanksgiving Decorations

Oh these are just so cute. We have this tiny fabric pumpkin that comes out every year and I think it's adorable, and every year I want to make some, but never do. I found a few different "How To" sites and took some ideas from a few and made my own. I'm not done yet but I'm going to show a few. I found this pumpkin from a sweater idea on Small Fry & Co.

While I was doing my thrift store run the other day I found an off white winter sweater and an ugly orange tank top. I also found a couple placemats that I'm also planning on using. While I was looking at the different types of fabric pumpkins I came a cross several sites where they made pumpkins out of any old fabric. I want to make a couple of these too. I know I'm getting a little crazy now and my husband will have to hose me down soon. Haha.

This off white fabric pumpkin follows very similar to Small Fry's. I changed a few things that I thought made it easier for me.

Stuff from thrift store to make pumpkins $3.00

 I started out with this sweater and cut the top of the sweater off.

  

 

 

The instructions I followed called for a full 6 strands of embroidery floss and a large needle. I am so glad I had those doll making needles from when my mom and I made the Waldorf Dolls last year.

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Turn the bottom half of your sweater inside out and sew a running stitch along the bottom of the sweater and gather it all up.

After it's all gathered begin to sew back and forth across to close the opening.

 Next you turn the pumpkin right side out and stuff. I used Polyfil.

To close the top you do the same thing you did to the bottom. Sew a running stitch along the top and gather up. Then sew the opening closed.

The instructions I followed said to grab a very LONG piece of floss and start from the bottom. This is another place where those large needles come in handy. Push the needle through the bottom seam and squish the pumpkin to bring it through the top. Take a stitch and push it back through the bottom. If you do this a few times in different spots it will make an indent in the top of the pumpkin to help hide the top stitch.

I wasn't happy with the way mine looked after I finished this, so I decided to do another running stitch along the top right above the indented seam. This actually created a small hole for the stem to go in and it hid the seam beautifully.

The running stitch along the top. 

My sweet husband cut some bush branches off our bush outside. Find yourself some thick tree or bush branches about 4-ish inches tall. I  used hot glue and filled the hole and put a little on the bottom of the branch and stuck that stem in there. I squished the pumpkin around the branch until it was dry.

Here is the hole for the branch after the running stitch is done.

I wasn't planning on doing leaves but my kids thought it was cute. I had no green felt and had to run to the store during the project. I ended up finding a 1/3 yard green felt remnant in the clearance bin for $0.79. Yay! I found a picture of a pumpkin leaf online and traced it onto a white paper directly from my computer screen. I used this as my leaf template.

I cut out two leaves for the large pumpkin.

Then glue the two leaves next to the stem and add straw ties. I found a grass Hawaiian skirt costume at the thrift store and bought that to use for the straw ties.

HERE IT IS! 

Next is the ugly orange tank top pumpkins. This was a very wide short worn out tank top. Following the same steps as the sweater.

The difference here is I cut the bottom portion of the shirt into two rectangles. I wanted to have a variety of sizes for my pumpkins. The skinnier the rectangle, the taller the pumpkin will be.

And since I had cut this shirt I had to sew a seam down the open side of each one. I used my sewing machine and did a zig zag stitch.

Now just follow the same instructions. If you are using a piece of fabric without pre-sewn seams, you will have to sew two seams down the long sides of your rectangle, just as I had to with this shirt.

Thanks for looking. Happy Thanksgiving!