Fall Fabric Pumpkins {tutorial}

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year, and I think that goes for a lot of people out there!

Back to School, football games, cool nights and sunny days and all the warm feel good stuff like bonfires and apple cider and jumping in leaf piles. How can you help but love fall?

Sooo, that means for this gal, lots of fall crafts and decorating!

Cordurouy Fabric Pumpkins

Materials List:

Fabric - 1/2 yard? (about 1 pant leg)

coordinating thread

contrasting fabric (6" square piece)

jute, sisal, or just a natural rope or twine

scissors

sewing machine (or ALOT of patience for hand stiching)

stuffing

piece of a tree branch or stick

glue gun

Start out with your corduroy fabric.

In my case, thrift store pants that were 1/2 price the day I was there.

Cut up the seams of the pants until you have just fabric laying flat.

Here is a pattern that I think you should be able to print to scale:

Right click on the photo below and click Print Picture.

When your print dialog box comes up, click Preferences.

 Then, select Letter size and fit to page and it should be just right.

I'm a little new to the whole adding printable stuff to the blog, so bear with me!! :)

Print the page out twice. Cut the body of the pumpkin out (shape 1) and cut 8 pieces of fabric.

On the second page, cut out the leaf topper (shape 2) and cut 1 piece of fabric in your contrasting fabric (6" square piece)

Place right sides of fabric together and sew along one side. Backstitch at the long (bottom) side, where you will put the stuffing in. Otherwise, when you turn it and stuff it, it will not hold together!

Continue placing the right sides together and sew along one side as you begin to form a ball shape.

top of pumpkin

bottom of pumpkin

Finish by sewing (right sides together) the first piece and the last piece to close the ball.

Turn right side out.

 

Stuff.

At this point, it is optional for you to place a running stich around the opening and pull on the ends to gather. I did this with some and not others and it really didn't make a huge difference at the end. If you do, I would recommend using embroidery thread (any color since it gets covered) for stability.

The next step is where your fah-bu-lous present wrapping skills come into play! Wrap this baby up like you would a present you want to watch your kids struggle with for hours on Christmas morning! Seriously, the tighter you pull the rope, the more gathered and sectioned your pumpkin will look!

Since you have 8 sections to your pumpkin, you will start across the top so that you end up back up on the top. I like to follow the seam lines, but you could also do it in the middle of the lines for some added interest...

bottom

Note here that again, the tighter you pull, the less of the opening will show when you are done, and the easier it will be to cover with the leaf template.

top

Pin your Shape 2 pattern to your contrasting fabric (6" square piece) and cut out.

Fold in half and make a small cut in the center, then fold the opposite way and make another cut perpendicular to the first. When you are done, you will have a small X right in the center of your fabric where you can pull the rope through the top.

I cut a few extra leaf shapes and added them to the top for some dimension.

I secured all of it with hot glue. At this point, you could also choose to add some contrast stitching with emboridery floss as I did in the photo below.

This little punkin was a pair of very lovely (and far too small for me) velvet Ann Taylor Loft pants that I picked up for $2.50 at Goodwill the same day I found the white corduroy ones (among many others that are being made into pumpkins at the present time)

Ok, final steps, you're almost there! Hot glue that stick onto the top of the pumpkin, right in the center where the knot of the rope is showing through.

Start to wind the rope around the stem until you get up to the top and back down again. Swirl the remaining rope around with some hot glue and your fingers (and yes, you will get burned if you are not careful on this step) and you are done!

Linking up to:

House of Hepworths

Flaunt It Friday
Transformation Thursday
Make It Monday