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As Summer draws abruptly to a close, I realise that I have done woefully little sewing over the summer holidays. And for the next couple of weeks Elizabeth cannot be at nursery after her adenotonsillectomy. I therefore also doubt much will get done for another couple of weeks. However, I do realise that the onset of Autumn does mean that Halloween is on the horizon. And with that in mind I wanted to make a start on some Halloween decor ideas. Here is how you make a Halloween pumpkin garland.
How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Garland
You will need:
- Some pieces of fabric or felt – this is a great scrap buster, as mine are only about 4 inches square. The fabric pieces I used were all leftovers from Halloween dresses that I have made for Elizabeth.
- Cotton to sew the pumpkins together
- Thicker yarn, wool or embroidery cotton
- scissors
- stuffing for the pumpkins – you can buy this specially, but I actually save old pillows and use the stuffing from them, its much more eco-friendly to reuse them than throw them away!
- long needles with a big eye for the thick yarn to go through
- Some thicker string or coordinating wool/yarn to string the pumpkins onto at the end.
A sewing machine is advisable but not essential.
Sewing
Taking 2 matching squares right sides together, sew a narrow seam allowance down each side. This joins them together to make a tube. A sewing machine is best for this as it makes for a tighter seam, but you can hand sew with very small stitches instead.
Thread a needle with thin cotton/polyester thread, and at one end of the tube (still inside out) do a running stitch all around the top of the tube.
Pull this thread taut and put some stitches through the resulting bunched up fabric at the end.
Turn the tube inside out and you should find that you now have a closed end.
Again thread a needle with thin cotton and do another running stitch around the the other end of the tube. Keep the needle still attached.
You now have a little bag to fill with stuffing.
Stuffing
Fill the bag as much as you can to just under the line of stitching.
When it it fully stuffed, pull the needle and running stitches taut at the top, and sew a few stitches into the resulting bunched fabric to secure. You now have a padded ball of fabric ready to make it a pumpkin!
Shaping
Thread a needle with a double thickness of the wool or embroidery yarn. Push the needle through the centre bottom of the padded ball, and out of the middle of the top of the ball
Pull the wool down the side of the ball and again put the needle into the middle of the base of the ball and out of the top middle of the ball. Pull the yarn tight to create a pumpkin shaped segment. Work around the ball to make 5 or 6 segments in total.
Once you get to the end push the needle through the pumpkin a couple of times. Cut the yarn about 3 inches from the pumpkin to leave a stem of yarn that you can tie a knot into.
I added a little piece of green to make a stalk, by sewing some green fabric around the top of the pumpkin and around the yarn stem.
Finishing the Halloween Pumpkin Garland
My mantlepiece is about 4 foot wide, so I made 7 pumpkins and cut a piece of yarn for the garland slightly longer than this. I threaded the pumpkins and knotted them onto the garland yarn at 6 inch (15cm) intervals using the loops created by knotting the top of the stems.
And here is the finished garland
Such an easy and quick sew, my Halloween Pumpkin Garland took me about an hour to make in total.
I hope you have found this useful, I would love to see your makes and versions of this project. Do comment below, or tag me in your makes on social media!
Happy Halloween.
This is sooo cute!
Thank you!
Thank you. Yes, the beauty is that you can use pretty much any fabric, to match a colour scheme or just to use up your scraps.
I love finding crafts to do with scraps of fabric or felt. Thanks for the idea!!!
I have plenty more scrap busting ideas in the pipeline so do stay tuned! Thank you for your comment.
This garland is adorable! I’ll have to find some time to make it before Halloween.
It really does not take that long, but I posted this post a while in advance as I love to plan ahead! Thank you for your comment
It really turned out fabulous didn’t it! I love the Orange Pumpkins, Thank you so much for linking up with us for #AbloggingGoodTime
Yes, I’m glad I made some traditional looking pumpkins as well as other colours. Thank you!
I love this, but as sewing is not a strong point of mine, I will admire yours and not attempt to make my own #blogginggoodtime@_karendennis
Aw, thank you.
What a cute garland! I am not a big sewer but this looks doable! Thanks for sharing. #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you! It really is so simple and effective!
Well it looks wonderful. It looks like quite a lot of work though. I will probably just be buying a pumpkin from the supermarket and hoping that I don’t cut my fingers off when I carve it. Pen x #ablogginggoodtime
Thank you. And go careful with those knives now!
This looks wonderful – so creative x #ABloggingGoodTime
Thank you!
I love these little pumpkins, they came out great! #ABloggingGoodTime
Thank you. Cute aren’t they?