Little Boo Pumpkin

Here's a fun little pumpkin tutorial for you! Make sure when Fall is over and you get ready to throw away all of your gourds and little pumpkins, that you save the stems. They add a realistic touch to handmade fabric pumpkins.

 

 

Fabric pumpkin, needle felted acorns, and fabric leaves.

 

 

 

Hand dyed velvet pumpkin.

 

Draw a 4" circle. Lay the pattern on a double layer of fabric and cut out. Right sides together, sew, leaving a 1 1/2" gap for turning and stuffing. Turn pumpkin right side out. Stuff very firmly. Stitch opening closed. Using crochet thread, start in the middle from the bottom, go up through pumpkin, cross over the side downwards and back through the bottom of the pumpkin pushing needle through pumpkin and upwards. Continue doing this first in a "t" or cross shape and then in an x shape. Tie off on the bottom. Now just glue the stem on. There you have it, your cute little pumpkin. Make a bunch of them and put them in a bowl. Super cute! You could use wool, cute fabric or even felt. Have fun! If you get confused just leave a comment and I will try to explain it better.

 

This year I planted cotton in my garden. I hoped that it would make actual cotton bolls and it did! See the tiny bowl on the middle shelf? It has three cotton bolls in it.

More of my NC garden grown cotton. I will have to take some pictures of the plants. The flowers are so pretty, they were white and some were pink.

Close up of cotton. I have some seeds that we have already harvested. I can't guarantee they will grow but if you would like a few just send me your address and I will get some to you. You will need to plant them after the last frost in the Spring.

Blessings,

Holly

Can You Yo-Yo?

I love yo-yos. The fabric ones that is. I think they are so adorable and versatile. I have used them on: cards, hair bows, quilts, clothespins, tags, aprons, potholders, pincushions, pin toppers, and on many other things. They are so simple to make. You don't even need a fancy schmancy yo-yo maker. Just some fabric, needle and thread. You can also make them any size that you want. A little hint: the size of yo-yo you want is about half the size of the circle you cut. For example, if you want a 2" yo-yo, just cut a 4 1/4" circle. The 1/4" is the edge that you will turn down.

Step 1: I love using a compass for my circles. I just have a cheap one from Walmart. I set the compass to 1 1/4" (zoom on picture for close up). This will make a 2 1/2" circle. This circle will form a yo-yo approximately 1" - 1 1/4". Draw the circle onto paper and cut it out.

Step 2: Cut the circles out of fabric.

Above: Step 3: Fold the edge down 1/4" (I do this as I am making the running stitch) and make a running stitch around the circle. **Make sure the thread that you are using is strong. Dental floss is great, but it only comes in one color: white. I love to use embroidery floss. You can use two or three strands and of course it comes in 1000s of colors (well...maybe hundreds, but still that's a lot!).

Above: Make sure you leave the tail hanging when you start the running stitch and do not tie the tails together when you finish.

Above: Step 4: Now draw up the tails and tie. Hint: I have found that the closer you get the running stitch to the edge the smaller and more uniformed the gather will be. See in the above picture how the gather is kind of bunchy and not very neat looking. I made the running stitch between 1/8"- 1/4" from the edge. This look is cute, but not what I was going for. In the "above, above" picture of the running stitch (blue circle) I made the stitches really close to the edge.

Above: Here's the difference in stitch placement. One on left (orange) stitch was placed approximately 1/4" from edge and on the right (blue) it was placed almost to the edge.

Above: Happy Little Yo-Yos! I love using them on clothespins. Fun!!

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend and don't forget to keep those ten little fingers busy!!

Holly