There’s all over the place, these cute plush pumpkins. I originally saw them last year over at The Inspired Room and have been dreaming about them ever since. Of course the ones featured there are incredibly expensive albeit the nicest ones I’ve seen- being made of silk velvet and all that. So scratch that idea. I’d have to make my own. Here’s how to make my version of plush velvet pumpkins.
With a little “googling” under my belt, I figured out how to do it and headed off to the fabric store to buy some silk velvet. Now keep in mind that my fabric store is 45 minutes away in a small city of about 50,000 – one fabric store in town, small selection AND velvet in black, dark green or red. Not exactly 50 shades of pumpkins. So with a little digging I came up with some velour, some suede-like and velveteen. Not quite as luxe as the originals, but still workable in my opinion. I bought 1/2 metre of each in about 6 shades and headed home.
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| guess I could have gotten all “magaziny” with this shot of the different fabrics |
Now the fun part, cutting and sewing……here’s some easy instructions.
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| tools you’ll need (besides scissors, needle & thread) – circles (cake pans), a funnel and some pumpkin stalks |
1) Get out your biggest cake pans. I’m lucky because I have a whole set of cake pans ranging from 6″ to 16″ – I used the 12″, 14″ and 16″ for the three different sizes. The diameter of the pumpkin works out to be about half the size of your pan – 16″ pan resulted in an 8″ pumpkin. If you don’t have a large cake pan, you can cut a circle of paper or cardboard to any size as a template.
2) Draw a circle and cut it out. It’s easiest if you use a marker to see the outline – don’t worry, you won’t see the marker lines when the product is finished.
3) With a heavy thread (I used button thread) hand sew a line just 1/4″ from the outer edge of your circles. Leave the ends of threads at both ends so that you can tie them together as you gather the top.
4) Leaving a hole big enough for the opening of your funnel (I made one out of an old water bottle with the bottom removed), fill the bottom 1/4 of your pumpkin with rice or beans to weigh it down. Fill the rest with polyfill stuffing. Draw the thread together and tie tightly. Cut off excess thread.
5) With a hot glue gun, secure the pumpkin stalk to the top of the pumpkin pushing down as it dries to create a more natural look.. Add some grapevine “twirls” for added effect. Let dry completely before moving (about 15 minutes).
That’s it! Easy peasy lemon squeezy. A pretty good knock-off of this popular Pinterest item. My biggest challenge is finding the pumpkin stalks. After visiting several veggie stands, I finally found someone who would “gather” some for me when picking up his pumpkins from a local farm. Got about a dozen from him with the promise of more. But last week the building he was in burned to the ground!!! Nobody hurt, but my pumpkin stalks got roasted.
Original article and pictures take www.newhousenewhomenewlife.com site
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