Welcome to my Pumpkin Patch!
Check out my latest tutorial to make yourself a quick and easy fabric pumpkin!
What’s not to love about fabric pumpkins?! They’re soft and cuddly, last year after year and can be made to match your decor… oh and yes they’re way less messy to make than carving a real pumpkin and last a whole lot longer! (that’s not to say I don’t love a bit of real pumpkin carving, but hey why not have both!)
After playing with a few traditional designs, I came up with this design, which, in my opinion, produces a much better looking pumpkin and I find gathering the sections much easier to make than trying to tie string in a uniform pattern around a round ball.
Upcycle old fabric! You don’t have to go out and buy fabric for this project, a rectangle of any size will do! Just remember that your rectangle should be about twice as long as it is wide (ie 10″ x 20″ or 4″ x 8″) then after subtracting the seam allowance, divide the length into about 5 equal sections. This is quite a forgiving project and since nature is never made of precise sizes, your pumpkins doesn’t have to be either!
Extra Construction Tips when using thick fabric!
Ive now made quite a few of these in a whole variety of sizes, from a whole variety of fabric. They all turn out fabulous, however there are a few extra tips if you choose to use a thick fabric:
- Use a strong thread for gathering the sections – Trying to gather thick fabric with thin (or old and frail) thread, can cause the thread to break, this can be very frustrating, so I found switching to a heavy duty thread meant I could really yank on the one thread to create fabulous gathers without worrying that the thread will break
- Gather the top and bottom of the pumpkin by hand – In the video I gather the top with the machine, this works ok for thin fabric, but on thick fabric you just can’t get the hole to close as the machine stitches are too close together. In this case, I found closing the top and bottom with a doubled thread knotted at one end, hand sew a line of running stitches all the way around the top and bottom edge and pull to gather.
Tell me about your pumpkin creations
I loved making this video, and hope I will inspire you to have a go at making a fabric pumpkin! If you do have a go, I would love to hear how you got on! Feel free to leave a comment below 🙂
Happy Autumn Sewing
Sarah xx
