Halloween
As halloween 2019 approached I recalled having seen some really funky pumpkins when I was browsing on Pinterest. I have quite a bit of orange fabric in my stash so I thought I’d take a closer look. I found a template on the Positively Splendid website. This is a great place for freebie patterns and, I discovered on this visit, you can sign up for email updates.
Once I had the initial segment shape I found it east to scale the size to make the bigger pumpkins I wanted to make.
The pumpkins were a really easy little project and could be made up in next to no time. Once the fabrics were selected and cut out they were sewn into two half-pumpkins, the two halves became a whole and were ready for stuffing!
I had a simple system for choosing the fabric for each pumpkin:
2 solid/fairly solid segments
2 dense patterned segments
2 loose patterned segments
Segments were sewn together in 3s to make 2 halves of the pumpkin
Right now the completed pumpkin looks for all the world like a deflated beachball!
Nearly there
Probably the only slightly tedious part of the making was stuffing the pumpkins. I used polyester wadding and just carried on until the pumpkin felt about right and then hand stitched the opening.
I used two pieces of fabric and stitched around the edges and then added veins, then I decided on double stitching just for a bit of definition. the stem was a little cylinder cut on a diagonal along the top edge and stuffed.
Leaves
Completing
All that remained was to pull the pumpkin into a more pumpkin shape. I chose to use 2 strands of embroidery thread from the orange skein; stitched it into place at the bottom of the pumpkin ; stitched into place at the top, and keeping in place in the centre of the segment, tightened it until the shape looked right. This was repeated for each segment. Finally the stem and leaf were stitched into place.
This is definitely a fun, easy and speedy little project. It was popular with the family. I ended making not only my own but a set for my granddaughter and my daughter and a friend. There may be more next year!