Happy Hour Projects logo

No-Sew Fabric Pumpkin

Well, I don’t have much time this week, which is something I’m sure MANY of you mamas can relate to! So I have a quick project for you today, not even an hour, and NO sewing required. That’s right, even cleanup will be quick for this one!

Time: 20 minutes

Supplies:

  • 18″ square of pumpkin-appropriate material. I used a rusty orange twill. This makes a smallish pumpkin, it’s around 6″ in diameter, so scale up as you like.
  • 1 lb. beans. Or some stuffing of your choice. I wanted something heavy enough for it not to be toppling over. (Plus I’m out of polyfil… but I had a bag of beans.  And if you recall, we always try to use what we have!)
  • Scraps of felt for leaves and coordinating yarn/string/twine.
  • Scissors.

Optional but helpful in construction:

  • Plastic wrap.
  • Rubber bands.
  • Hot glue gun.

I don’t know if I’m being paranoid, but I want the beans to stay dry and not get gross later. So I wrapped them up in 2 layers of plastic wrap first. If you have another form of stuffing, this step is totally unneccessary. It might be unnecessary anyway, but I figure, better safe than sorry.

Use a rubberband (or if you don’t have any on-hand, a piece of yarn would probably work fine too) to gather up a small point in the center of your square. This is the center underside. By creating pleats/ruffles here, your whole pumpkin will have more pleats instead of being smooth on the lower half. But test it out both ways of you want and see which look you prefer.

Put your bag-o-beans in with the rubberband side on the inside and draw the sides up, arranging your pleats as you like.

Pleaty.

Close with a rubber band. Once again, not essential, but having the rubbery surface will help things grip better.

Cut off your top to whatever stump-size you like the looks of.  It’s thick, this can be kind of tough, just use sharp scissors.  I closed off with a second rubber band to keep it nice and gathered. Then I tied a bit of yarn around the bottom so I could begin attaching my felt leaves.

Cut some leaves to the shape you like, leaving a nice long tail so they can be wrapped into your stump for security, and over the top of the stump where yarn-wrapping isn’t really practical. I am using brown yarn, so I made the brown leaf tail long and fattish, because I want it to wrap all the way over the top of the stump with fabric to spare. Doing this will ensure I don’t have ends poking out at the top later.

Tie them on how you like them so that everything is fairly secure. See how the brown leaf tail will cover over the stump?

I used my hot glue gun to glue the brown felt around the stump. You can probably accomplish the task without hot glue (or any glue, for that matter) and just do a really snug wrap, but securing it now should make wrapping much easier without having to hold those edges down.

Then, I tied a bit of yarn underneath the leaves, and began wrapping the long end around the stump, wrapping upward.

Honestly, I don’t know how much yarn I ended up using, since I unraveled it right from the skein but I would estimate it was a good 6 feet or so? When I got to the top of the stump, I wrapped it back downward, until I got back to the bottom, where I tied the yarn off with that loose end from the beginning. I trimmed the ends.

And that’s it! I had myself a finished pumpkin.

Now that I know it works (because sometimes you worry when it’s just an idea in your head, you know) I would like to try a funky pumpkin with a bold pattern.

I’d also like to make a bigger one to set beside this little guy too. But now I’m out of both beans and polyfil… Yeeha, I am now allowed to shop again! ;)

I link to these fabulous parties!

copyright policy and terms of use

I love it when you love my work! All tutorials and photos published at Happy Hour Projects are copyrighted. If you would like to feature my tutorial on your website or share it on your social media you may use one photo to feature, as long as you provide a link back to the original post.

If you feature a photo, it may not be accompanied by the project tutorial or recipe, whether in my own words as it originally appears or paraphrased by you. This also includes personal sharing on social media and Pinterest. Publishing multiple photos from a project, or including instructions with an accompanying photo are not permitted and you will be asked to remove them.

I love to share my projects, and my tutorials, recipes, and e-books are ALL free for your personal use. However, photos and ideas that are published to this site are my protected intellectual property. You may print them at home, but please do not copy or distribute them. I also allow all designs to be made and sold at fundraisers, craft fairs, etc. If you are selling a piece made from one or more of my free tutorials in your online shop, I require that you use your own, original photography, and include a link back to my website to credit me as the designer.

I hope you enjoy what you read here, and please be fair when you share!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jill says

    Adorable! I love these no sew pumpkins. Too cute! Love the idea of using potpourri like Carla suggested!

    Reply

  4. The Thin Thread says

    Great idea for fall decorations! Its so simple, which is what we're all looking for.

    Reply

  8. Cynthia and the farm house says

    Hi Adrianne!

    I love your blog! I am so excited I found it. I am a home schooling Mommy and this is a perfect fall project for us!! I am so excited to make it.

    Stop by some time!

    Blessings,
    Cynthia

    Reply

  9. Cheryl says

    Love the speed & cuteness of this project. I've featured it at today's Craftastic Party. Stop by & grab a Featured On button. Thanks for linking to Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do:)

    Reply

  10. Erin of HomeSavvyAtoZ.com says

    This is a super cute pumpkin, Adrianne, and I love that it is NO SEW! Thank you so much for sharing your post at Savvy HomeMade Monday.

    Reply

  12. Rach H says

    Youre being featured on my blog tonight! Yay! This is awesome!!! Come grab a button if you can! Thanks for linking!

    Reply

  15. Quilted Cupcake says

    Great job – love this pattern so much. I wanted to make some quick decorations, and this is perfect. I just added it to my board on Pinterest.

    Reply

  19. Katie says

    Ahh! I love this. I just wanted to let you know that I featured this project on Sew Woodsytoday! :)

    Reply

  21. Melissa says

    Wow! Love it! Thanks for the tutorial. I'm a new follower from the More the Merrier blog hop. Please come by mine, if you get a chance.

    Reply

  24. Madison says

    It's Madison again! I stopped by to leave you a comment last week, but I'm stopping by again to let you know I'll be featuring this post in a fall roundup over on my blog (www.craftycritique.com) if you want to come check it out. Thanks again for the awesome idea! :)

    Reply

  27. Jenny H says

    Very cute! I may have to try this for the fall. Thanks for the follow, now following back! :)

    Reply

  30. Tanya says

    We made these one fall with some home spun fabric and toilet paper rolls. Set your roll on a square of fabric and bring it up the sides and poke the ends down the center hole!! Add a piece of a tree branch and some raffia around the “stem”. It was so fun. I love the beans idea too. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  32. Madison says

    These are so stinkin' cute. I was planning on making something like this with some orange fabric I have. I had another tutorial but yours is totally better. Found it just in the knick of time! Thanks for sharing! :)

    Reply

  36. Amy says

    I love this! Definitely want to try it with my son. We do a weekly craft playdate with some other little friends and maybe we'll all do this for our next project! Thanks for the idea and the great tutorial! :) Pinning now…

    amy
    oneartmama.blogspot.com

    Reply

  37. Working Mommy says

    Cute!! I could make a whole bunch of these and have a patch of pumpkins on my table :)

    WM

    Reply

  38. Carmella says

    Great idea..and I know my kiddos are going to love helping me make these!!
    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  41. Alexis says

    This is really cute! I've made some before with toilet paper rolls, but I like this one better. :-)

    Reply

  43. chubskulit says

    Wow this is so cute. You made it look like very easy to make lol.

    I am a new follower from bloghop Thursday. Hope you can give back the love at my Nostalgic Marveling blog or to my other blogs.

    Reply

  44. Shona says

    This is so stinkin' cute! So creative. Thanks for sharing! Oh, and I think it's “skein” of yarn (pronounced skeen)! But I like package-thingy too! lol

    Reply

  48. trophyw.blogspot.com says

    Love these. It's too hot here to think about pumpkins yet, but I may need to make a few in a couple of weeks.

    Reply

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *