Fabric Pumpkins

 

Hello everyone!

A few weeks ago, I shared my #craftblogclub covered notebook project with you, if you didn't catch it you can see the post here.

Emma at Life Is Peachy Tales set us our next mini project at the beginning of this month - a Halloween themed craft that we haven't tried before.  I have to admit, to start off with I was more than a little stumped as to what I was going to do.  How could I possibly adapt my love of vintage colours and materials to a Halloween theme?  

Then I spotted these beautiful fabric pumpkins all over Pinterest, and I knew I had to give it a go.  I may be predictable, but I love pretty with a vintage twist and these bejewelled pumpkins fit the bill perfectly.  Plus I could use materials and fabric I already had in the house.

I looked at several tutorials before merging a couple together to come up with the easiest way to make them.  I am a very lazy crafter, and cut corners wherever possible!  Next year I'll do a proper tutorial with pictures (I didn't plan ahead this time!)  but here's what I did in a nutshell - the lazy crafters fabric pumpkins.

Materials

A variety of fabric-I used some vintage, an old blanket, and some stretchy velvet I bought from eBay.

Stuffing-I used stuffing from an old pillow, and some dried haricot beans to weigh them down a little.  (This is what I had in my cupboard, but you could use dried lentils or rice too.)

Twigs, sticks or driftwood for the stalks

Needle and thread

Trim-ribbon, lace, buttons, brooches, anything you like!

Cut fabric circles in a variety of sizes.  Use plates as a template-I used a huge platter for the biggest pumpkins, a large plate and a regular sized plate to give me three different sizes.

Take your fabric circle, and tack round the edge, using large stitches.  When complete, pull it so that the fabric draws together to form a pouch.  Before pulling it tight, fill the pouch with stuffing, and enough dried beans in the bottom to give it some weight.  When full, pull your thread tight and fasten, making sure you have space to put your stalk in.

Disguise any gaps between the hole and the stalk with your trim and decoration.  I found with the blanket fabric, that I was left with a large hole at the top.  I hid it with satin trim and a brooch.  These pumpkins are not perfect, and this is the lazy crafters version - but I managed to make them in the space of two hours on a Sunday whilst the children were watching a Disney film, so quite frankly I was delighted with them, flaws and all!  

I am off to my parents on Wednesday night with the children for a little half term break, and I can't wait.  They are doing a Halloween party for the kids, and in preparation I took them to the Pound Shop the other day, where we filled our bags with Halloween tat.  Face paints, lanterns, silly sweets, stickers.  Although I adore my fabric pumpkins, the biggest pleasure is seeing the children's faces light up with their little bags of Halloween swag.

Have a fab week!

Tamsyn x