Stuffed Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial

Due to popular demand, here is the the promised tutorial for the cute little pumpkins!

First of all, you need a circle of fabric. The bigger your circle, the bigger your pumpkin. These three circles are a dinner plate size, a small plate size, and a really little plate size!

For this tutorial I used the largest one, dinner plate size. The finished pumpkin will be about 5 inches across. Don't be too fussy with making it a perfect circle - you can see mine aren't! A little wonkiness will make your pumpkin unique!

Next, you make a big yo-yo. I used a single strand of perle cotton, but you can use regular thread if you want. Just make sure to double it so it doesn't break when you pull to gather.

Knot one end, then take big stitches, being sure to turn under the edge a little. My stitches are about a half inch long.

Stitch all the way around to where you started, then gather it a little...

Then stuff your pumpkin! The more you stuff it the fuller it will be.

Now pull your gathers as tight as you can. There will be a gap in the middle, which is a good thing! You need somewhere to put the stem!

Go over a couple of the gathers a few times to secure your thread, then cut it off. You could also leave a bit hanging and stuff it inside the pumpkin if you want.

Now get yourself a stem. I just went outside and cut some small branches from our maple trees. Then cut a piece of that to the size you want. Your pumpkin might have a short stem or a really long one. It's up to you!

Push the stem down in the pumpkin as far as you can.

Cut a long piece of perle cotton and double it. Mine was the length of my arm span times two.

Now you are going to create the bumps in your pumpkin by wrapping it like a present! Start on the top, placing the middle of the length of cotton in the middle of the pumpkin.

Take it to the bottom of the pumpkin as so, and pulling quite firmly, create quarters...

then eighths...

Then still pulling it firmly, tie it off.

You will probably have extra thread still attached...

You can either cut it off now and call it done, or you can do like I did, and wrap it around the stem before cutting it off. It's entirely up to you!

Now go forth and create your own colorful pumpkin patch!