How To Make Sweater Pumpkins

It’s still relatively warm where I live, but there are hints of autumn in the air.

To help transition into this new season, I whipped up a few of my favorite fall foods (like these pumpkin spice scones) and sprinkled some fall decor around the house including these adorable sweater pumpkins.

Made from the sleeves of old sweaters, these pumpkins require minimal sewing skills and deliver darling results.

If you don’t have any fall-colored sweaters ready to repurpose, thrift stores offer a good option.

Ready to make a pumpkin patch of your very own? Let me show you how.

STEP 1:  Gather your supplies:

• sweater sleeve
• needle and thread
• polyfill stuffing
• artificial leaves
• stick for the stem
• embroidery floss and yarn needle, optional

STEP 2:  Turn the sleeve inside out.

Sew one end closed using a basting stitch.

STEP 3:  Pull thread tight to gather the fabric.

Knot to close.

STEP 4:  Turn sleeve right side out.

Now you have a little pouch.

STEP 5:  Fill with polyfill stuffing.

I re-used the stuffing from an old pillow.

STEP 6:  Sew the top closed using the same basting stitch.

Pull thread tight to gather the fabric and knot to close.

STEP 7:  To make the pumpkin’s segments, thread embroidery floss on a yarn needle.

Starting at the bottom, push the needle through to the top, making sure the knot catches.

STEP 8:  Wrap around the pumpkin and back through the bottom to the top.

Continue until you have 5-6 segments.

STEP 9:  Knot off the embroidery floss and then loop through the base of the artificial leaves. Knot to close.

Place a stick into the center for a stem.

I used twigs from my yard as stems and the faux leaves are from my craft stash. Real pumpkin stems or rolled pieces of felt would work well as stems, and you could make leaves from felt, too.

I finished these three pumpkins in about an hour, using less than one sleeve per color.

They are just the right touch to get me excited about the new season.

Do you decorate for fall?
What are some of the things you do to signal the changing season?
Kindly share below; I’d love to hear from you!
Thanks so much for reading!  — v.