DIY Linen Pumpkins

I recently spent a fun Saturday afternoon crafting some pumpkins. It seems, strangely, that most of my besties are not into crafts or DIY home projects. I know...I guess opposites attract! But I knew you blog readers would appreciate some fun little pumpkins made from scrap fabric...so here's the pumpkin-y scoop!

I had been seeing these little pumpkins all over Pinterest. Isn't that always the case? They were made from velvet, drop cloths, burlap, all sorts of textural fabrics. And the instructions looked so EASY...as they always do on Pinterest. Crafter beware...very few DIY projects are as easy and mistake-proof as advertised on the big P. But I still wanted to try. And here's what happened on a messy Saturday afternoon!

My pumpkins "gathered" for a group photo. Disclaimer - I bought the bottom right pumpkin on Etsy for "market research"

After debating what kind of fabric to purchase, I realized I had a stash in my supply closet. Bits of leftover linens from kits and other projects came to my rescue! 

I tried 2 different methods of pumpkin construction. Again, using instructions online. Google it or look on Pinterest and you'll find a plethora of DIY posts. You can either start with a rectangle and gather top and bottom, stuff, close. Or begin with a circle and you only have to gather once! I experimented with both, and liked the look of the circle method better. They're super fat and there are lots of pretty fabric folds everywhere.

Solitary pumpkin on my coffee table - kinda a little sculpture!

Here are a couple things I learned on my afternoon pumpkin adventure:

* The trickiest part - as I suspected, but NO ONE mentioned in their instructions - is gathering the pumpkin top. I used 6 strand floss because you have to pull really hard to close the top. Then it's tricky to stuff those gathers inside the pumpkin and hide them. They kept wanting to pop up outside the pumpkins. That's where the pumpkin stump/stem comes in! 

I didn't have any tree sticks handy (or any trees in my new yard ready for pruning!), so I used a couple things for stumps...driftwood pieces (bought these for other crafting) and wine corks (you know where these came from!). Some posts recommended using real pumpkin stems. They either saved dried stems from previous year's pumpkins or (horrors) snapped them off unsuspecting pumpkins at the pumpkin stand. ***I do think I will try to "harvest" my stems this year when I actually purchase some real pumpkins. It's 95 degrees here today, so pumpkins are not yet welcome on my porch.

*You have to pull your gathers tightly, yet leave enough room for the stump. And somehow make a tight knot to secure your gathers. I had trouble with this - it seemed I needed another set of fingers, but I did OK. So far, no pumpkins have exploded with fiberfill showering my house. 

Then the trusty glue gun does it's magic. I put a circle of glue all around the driftwood or wine cork, then stuffed in down in the pumpkin, pressing fabric to stem to hide the gathers. 

A trio of pumpkins on my drink station in my kitchen. Seemed an appropriate place for the wine cork stems.

* Embellish!!! If top isn't perfect, hide it with some embellishments. I decorated my pumpkins with some old buttons, bits of ribbon, shells, etc. In addition to looking good, these hid little bits of gathering and not quite perfect spots. I also could have added some leaves to my pumpkins. Didn't have any handy, but silk leaves would be perfect. I also saw burlap leaves on Pinterest. 

A little vignette on my long rustic kitchen table with my favorite blue glass. I decorated this bunch with shells since I think I live on the coast. I actually live on a sand-pit lake in the middle of Kansas!

* I found that bigger is not better. It may just be me, but I liked the smaller pumpkins better. I used a large dinner plate to cut out fabric circle for a lovely sized pumpkin. When I tried bigger pieces, my pumpkins were a little lumpy/funky.

A couple new pumpkins join some old pumpkins in entry hall. The creamy recycled sweater pumpkins were my DIY project last year. So easy - check Pinterest!

* Have FUN! I got pretty excited - perhaps unrealistically excited - every time I pulled the gathers shut (successfully),shoved a glue-laden stem in, and a little pumpkin was born. These little buggers are CUTE!!!

I think I may need more...

Find some fabric you like, gather some embellishments from your stash, heat up the glue gun, and make some pumpkins!!! It may not feel like fall here, but the calendar says it's "pumpkin time"!

***Any fun fall crafts happening at your house? Leave a COMMENT and tell us all about it!

CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK...we have a blog contest coming! We're inviting our friend, Winnie T. Pooh, to join our cross stitch fun...details soon!