pinksuedeshoe

Ever since last week when I decided to make a polka dotted pumpkin that is all that has been on my mind.  Well, not really, but close.  I even dreamed about the best order to sew them together one night.  And so I’m putting all those dreams to good use.  And here is an easy tutorial to make your own fall pumpkin patch.

To start with you’ll need to download the pattern I created.  It’s free, but please don’t reproduce it to share with others.  (If they want one please send them to this post so they can download it themselves.)  It’s two pages, one for the pumpkin body and one for the leaves and stems. UPDATE: I reloaded these two patterns on another server.  To save to your computer click on each one, right click on the image and select “save image as…” and save it to your computer.  If you are still having trouble viewing them please let me know in the comments.  So click on those two links and download your patterns save your patterns to your computer and then print.  They will print on regular 8.5×11″ paper.

I’ve made five pumpkins now in all different sizes, and I’ll give you my enlarging/reducing tips at the end of the tutorial.  But let’s get started.  Here is what you’ll need for a full size pumpkin.

You can use any non stretchy fabric to make your pumpkin.  Cottons, Quilters fabrics, Corduroy, Velvet, Burlap, Home Dec. weight, and linen are all good options.  For one of my smallest pumpkins I used part of a sleeve from a thrifted mens button-up shirt.  You can also use any kind of fabric for the stem, this particular bit of brown is some soft faux suede.  For the leaves use wool or wool felt (or fleece if you’re in a pinch) because it won’t fray.

• 3/8 yard main orange fabric
• Scrap of brown for the stem at least 4.5 x 8″
• Green wool felt for leaves (about 5 x 8″)
• Green and orange embroidery floss to coordinate with your body and leaves
• Matching thread for the pumpkin, dark thread for the stem
• Polypellets, White Rice, Dry Beans to weight your pumpkin base.
• Stuffing (Polyfill, Wool, Bamboo, or in my case, my old living room pillows.)
• Water Soluble Fabric Pen
• Scissors, needle, thimble, pins

If you are making a full size pumpkin you’ll need to cut your fabric very carefully.  The pattern piece is 13.5 inches long, which is exactly how much 3/8 a yard is.  So be careful, or buy a little extra.  After making five pumpkins I think I’ve figured out the fastest way to cut out the seven pumpkin pieces.  Trace your pattern onto the wrong side of your fabric, just inside the selvedge edge.  Your tips should nearly touch both cut edges of fabric.  After you’ve traced your pattern, fold the fabric up accordian style so you have seven layers together.  (If you don’t have super sharp scissors try a stack of four and a stack of three).  After you’ve got it all folded, press the edges to make them nice and straight.  Then put a few pins in your stack and cut out.  This is what it should look like when you’re done.

The pins keep anything from shifting, and it’s much faster than cutting out 7 pieces individually, or in two’s.  I tried both of those ways too.  Then cut out the rest of your pieces.

You should have 7 body pieces, two circles, two stems and two (or however many you want) leaves.  You should probably turn them into a Strongbad/luchador character…  No?  That’s just me?  Fine.  Moving on.  We are going to be using a 1/4″ seam allowance throughout this project.*  Using dark thread sew your stem pieces together, starting and stopping at the dots marked on the bottom of the pattern, leaving an opening at the bottom to turn. Backstitch at the beginning and end so your stem will hold up to the stuffing process.  Make sure you use matching/pretty close-ish thread for this, otherwise you may see your stitches when your stem is stuffed.  Sew your two circles right sides together.  Sew all the way around, don’t leave a hole for turning.

Make a small slit with your scissors through the center of ONE of your circles.  Be careful not to snip through the second layer.  Turn the circle through the slit and fingerpress the edge, set aside.  Now start sewing your pumpkin body pieces together.  Match the dark dots marked on each point and backstitch at the beginning and end.  It is going to look kind of like a beach ball.  (And geez, next summer you could totally make one of those instead.)

Once you have all seven pieces sewn together, close up the last seam, making sure to leave an opening for turning, backstitching at both ends.  Before you turn your pumpkin right side out, stitch over the ends a few times to reinforce them.  Mine never matched up perfectly, and you’ll probably have a teeny tiny hole if you don’t close it up.  The ends don’t need to be perfect by any stretch.  We are going to cover both of them up eventually.  Turn your pumpkin right side out.

Grab a small funnel, or make one out of paper and tape and let’s add some weight to the bottom of the pumpkin.  With your stuffing hole at the top, add between 1-2 cups of polypellets, dry white rice or dry beans.  I’ve made pumpkins with all three this week and I prefer the rice.  It is a little heavier than the polypellets (and way cheaper) and when the pumpkin is finished the rice looks a lot smoother than the beans.  How much rice (or whatever) you put in the base of your pumpkin is most going to determine it’s shape.  If you only use a little bit of rice, your pumpkin will be more round looking.

[ I just noticed the gingham pumpkin was stemless.  Thanks to photoshop now he’s not naked. ]

The large polka dotted pumpkin (full size pattern) has one bag (8 oz) of poly pellets in it.  As a result it is a very round smooth ball shaped pumpkin.  The striped pumpkin on the left side is a 75% size and has the same amount of poly pellets, but because it’s so much smaller, they take up a greater proportion of the pumpkins volume.  The pumpkin I made while I wrote the tutorial (top right) has about two cups of rice in it.  I’m not sure how all the volume and rice to polyfill ratio’s work, but I know that if you put more weight in the bottom then you’ll get a more bumpy (in the good way) kind of pumpkin.  You can see on the two darker orangey pumpkins how they are not at all “round” and spherical…. but they have a good pumpkin shape to them.  OK, enough about math, and shapes and volume.  I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

Start stuffing your pumpkin full of stuff.  I reused the fluff that was inside my old living room pillows.  And keep stuffing stuff in there until you think it’s full.  Then add a little more.

While you are stuffing, help give your pumpkin’s ribs (ribs?  do vegetables have ribs?) some definition with a good squeeze.  When you’ve got him near full to bursting, slipstitch the opening closed.  Now we are going to give those ribs a little more oomph with some embroidery floss.

1. Measure how much orange floss you’ll need by wrapping it around your pumpkin about 8 times.  The floss is going to sit right in the seams that are on either side of each of the seven pieces.  It ends up being a lot more string than you think you’ll need.
2. Tie a double knot and starting at one end of your pumpkin, nestle the floss right in the seam and pull it tight along the rib to the other end.  Take one stitch right in that ditch and tie a double knot.  The biggest thing to remember is to push your needle UP at the beginning of each seam right in the ditch where the two pieces meet.  That will help keep the floss tight in those seams and cover them up a little bit.  Also, before you tie the double knot at each end, pull the thread pretty tight to give your pumpkin a little more of the squishy oommphy factor.
3. Continue all the way around your pumpkin and end with another double knot.
4. Pin your circle over the bottom (rice side) of your pumpkin and slipstitch in place to cover up all those double knots and any other little imperfections.  (Resist the urge to sew this circle onto the end while your needle is full of thread from closing up the pumpkin’s stuffing hole.  It makes adding the embroidery floss in the ribs a gillion times more difficult.  Though not impossible… that’s how I did 3 of my 5.

Almost done, now it’s just a matter of getting your pumpkin dressed up in stems and leaves.

Turn your stem right side out and stuff with stuffing.  You may have to trim some of the seam allowance off before you turn it to get a smooth corner.  Make sure you turn out the teenycorners and get them tightly stuffed.  Decorate your leaves with some embroidered veins if you like.  I included two leaf shapes with the pattern.  The pointy leaves were the first one’s I made, but I think the rounded leaves are easier to cut out.  And they more closely resemble an actual pumpkin leaf.

Using a lot of pins, pin your leaves and stem directly to your pumpkin.  Don’t pin your leaves on flat, give them a little bit of body and give and let them curl a bit.  I used dark brown thread to attach my stems and leaves.  Use a basic slip stitch to attach your stem first.

When you are sewing the leaves on take teeny little stitches on the top so they will kind of disappear in the pile of the felt.  I only took one stitch at each pin, except where they needed to be tacked onto and underneath the stem.  Don’t those leaves down all the way around every edge, it will look really weird.  Kind of like my first one (below left).

Here are two more leaf versions.  The left is my first pumpkin with the spiny leaves and very little embroidery for veins. The pumpkin on the right I didn’t use any embroidery at all, just tacked the leaves on.  Both of these leaves are made from soft merino wool felt, made from a beautiful J.Crew sweater that I bought at the thrift store and felted.  The leaves from the tutorial pumpkin are made from a wool/rayon blend felt I got at Joann’s.  (I suggest not using acrylic felt, mostly because the colors are pretty bright and not very much like a natural leaf color.)  You can add any kind of detail to the leaves with embroidery floss. Get creative and blanket stitch around the edges or add a little bug.  If you get really adventurous and are cooking for a small group,  embroider names on the leaves of baby pumpkins and use them as placecards at the table.  Wouldn’t that make for a fancy Thanksgiving!

Ta-da!  Your pumpkin is all finished.  Make him some friends and let them hang out as a centerpiece from now until Thanksgiving.  Or use them to play ball in the house.  Or bowling.  But don’t try and give them away, they are way too cute for that.

Alright, here’s some more math and measurements if you want to make pumpkins in all different sizes.  Depending on how much weight you put in your pumpkin your height could change.  If you use more rice, he’ll be a little shorter, and a little wider.  Finished size is measured from the floor to the top of the stem.

• 125% Pumpkin (not finished, but cut out) requires 1/2 yard of orange, don’t try and cut all seven pieces at once.  I’m guessing he’ll be about 13-14 inches high.
• 100% Pumpkin (orange polka dots in the back) requires 3/8 yard of orange.  Finished pumpkin is about 10 inches.
• 85% Pumpkin (orange floral pictured throughout this tutorial) requires 1/3 yard orange, or one fat quarter.  Finished pumpkin is about 8.5 inches.
• 75% Pumpkin (orange stripe) requires 1/3 yard orange, or one fat quarter.  Finished pumpkin is about 7 inches.
• 50% Pumpkin (orange gingham and small orange polka dot) requires less than 1/4 yard.  Finished size is about 4.5 inches.*

*When making a pumpkin at 50% of the pattern size I used a smaller seam allowance.  It was only about 1/8″, because 1/4″ seemed like it was too big, particularly on the stem.  I’m sure it would work just fine, but your pumpkin will end up a little bit smaller, and your stem will be skinnier.

If you run into any questions while making a pumpkin please ask them in the comments, and I’ll get back to you asap.  If something is unclear please let me know.  It’s well after one am as I’m finishing writing this post and I may have missed something.  Also if you make a pumpkin please add it to the newly formed pinksuedeshoe flickr group.  Actually, if you have made anything inspired by projects or tutorials posted here add it!  It’s brand new and totally empty and lonely.  It needs some freinds.  I am hoping to do a pumpkin roundup post the week before Halloween from pictures posted to flickr.  Of if you aren’t flickr savvy you can post them on your blog and email me the link, or email pictures directly to me.  I hope to see a few more pumpkin friends in the next few weeks!

*** This pattern is for personal use only.  You are welcome to use this pattern and tutorial to make pumpkin for yourself or to give as gifts, but please do not sell items made from this tutorial.  If you’d like to borrow a picture of a finished pumpkin to post on your blog, please include a link back to this post.  But please don’t post the pattern or parts of the tutorial on your blog.  Thanks! ***