Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Sweater Pumpkin

Hi friends! 
This tutorial was my first ever guest post (on Sugar Bee Crafts!) just after I started blogging. I never got a chance to post it here, so I thought it deserved to be shared again. Fall is my all time favorite season to decorate for. It may even out rank Christmas (I know!). I'm so excited to pull this little guy out again this year!

This project started out at Goodwill (don't the best ones always start at Goodwill?). I found this "awesome" sweater for $5, and just knew it had secret pumpkin aspirations.

I started by cutting the sleeves off, and making rectangles out of those top 3 orange stripes.
Note: When you're cutting up a striped sweater, make sure you either do it one side at a time, or make sure the stripes are lined up. Of course I remembered to do that...psh! Who would forget to do that! 

Take one of your rectangles, fold it in half and pin it like so:
(I need more blog friendly pins...)


Sew a 1/4 inch seam down this edge. Then fold each half in half and do the same thing again. You'll end up with something like this:

Repeat this whole process with the other rectangle, and then sew the two rectangles together, leaving you with something like this:

Grab a needle and thread and gather up one end of your pumpkin. It's difficult to get it closed up all the way, so I cut a rough circle out of brown felt and (very!) roughly whip stitched it on to cover up the edges.

At this point, it also makes a great hat!
(I love this smile!!)

Loosely gather up the other side. Fill your pumpkin with fiber-fill, our your stuffing of choice, and cinch it up. Leave your opening large enough that you could shove some more stuffing in there if you want once it's closed. 

Now your pumpkin needs a top. I grabbed a stick from outside, cut pumpkin-toppy (??) shape out of some green felt, and stuck the stick through the middle. I put a bit of hot glue around the bottom of the hole, just to keep everything secure.
This piece then got hot glued to the top of my pumpkin. Then I added some copper wire that was just sitting around. I twisted it around the stick a few times, and then wrapped the ends around a pencil to make some super cute little curly-cues.

Isn't it cute? I am thrilled with the way this pumpkin turned out. I plan on turning the bottom part of my sweater into a pumpkin as well, and maybe the turtleneck as well! I'll have a cute little pumpkin family! OK...maybe you're not as excited about that as I am...Whatev.

Sorry for the lame-o pics! I craft in a basement, and took pictures at night. Bad blogger, bad!

Be blessed!

Heather

I'm linking up. Come play with me!

12 comments:

  1. Great idea, Heather. I need one of those here at the house.....hint hint.
    The pictures were fine and easy to see

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is SO clever! Love how it turned out...(and maybe even as a hat!) Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do you come up with this stuff?! I am so impressed! Very cute Heather. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a great idea! I'm *so* not crafty.... :/

    ReplyDelete
  5. SOOOOOO stinkin cute! Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great idea!!!

    Stopping over from the networking blog hop!
    I´m your new follower via GFC!
    Check out my blog sometime and follow back if you like!
    http://wesens-art.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm I huge fan of fall as well! This is such a cute and creative idea!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, how creative and what amazing foresight you had when you saw that sweater. Well done you. Love a little fall decor. thanks for sharing, liz

    ReplyDelete
  9. Such a cute idea! Don't you love crafts for fall decorating? My favorite time of year! New GFC follower from the WED. Blog hop. Would LOVE it if you could visit my humorous site and follow back the same way--I'd be super grateful if you could. Thanks for sharing! http://Menopausalmother.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. Cool idea you're very clever! I've followed back x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well done ! Nice idea. Love your blog design and posts.
    I'm following you.

    Manuëla
    http://soeline.blogspot.fr/

    ReplyDelete
  12. I was able to find good info from your blog posts.
    My blog post ... best home renovator orlando fl

    ReplyDelete

Like it? Share it!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...