Knot Just Knit-Wits: Making Pumpkins

 

What You'll Need:

Fabric squares  - festive oranges and Fall themed fabrics work great!

Hot glue gun - or  fabric glue

Rice or Dry beans

Embroidery Floss

Batting

Cinnamon sticks or twigs from your backyard

Green felt, plastic Ivy leaves, Rafia, buttons, scrap fabric, etc... for decorating!

Step 1

   Cut the squares into  circles - They don't have to be perfect!  As a general rule of thumb, whatever size square you start with, your finished pumpkin will be about half the size. For example, a 12" square will give you about a 6" pumpkin.

  

Step 2

Stitch along the outside about 1/8" from the edge. The goal of this stitching is to create a drawstring. So, weave in and out of the fabric. The stitches can be rough - I usually go with  1/2" stitches and then sometimes 1/4"...I haven't noticed it making a difference in the end result.

 Step 3

Put a small handful or rice, or dry beans, inside the bottom of the Pumpkin - The purpose of this is to add a little weight. Normally no more than 1/4 cup - Even for a bigger 18" pumpkin. 

Step 4

Fill the pumpkin with batting. How much you use here is up to your own personal tastes! I like my smaller Pumpkins pretty full, and my bigger Pumpkins pretty loose.

Step 5 

Pull the strings to draw-in the fabric. Tie off the strings, but leave an opening for the size of your twig (or cinnamon stick).  I usually wait and tie off the strings after I glue in my stem - but whatever is easiest!

Step 6

The Pumpkin Stem - I have seen cinnamon sticks used for the stems before, but I have been using twigs that I cut off from random, dead branches. I used all different diameters, it just depends on what you like! 

Step 7

Place a bead of hot glue  or fabric glue) around the bottom of the twig and quickly stick it in the hole of the pumpkin. Hold the fabric to the glue and let set.

Step 8 

Decorating! You now have your basic pumpkin and it's time to dress it up! For the leaves, felt or plastic Ivy works great! Also, I like using Raffia all by itself tied around the stem!

Knit -Wit Paula made a couple really cute Pumpkins out of wool - stems and leaves in all! My favorite part of making these simple pumpkins, is how fun and easy it is to change the look with just using different fabrics, textures and materials, so on and so forth! So - get going! Make your pumpkin patch just in time for Fall!