Do you have an old sweater laying around that you never wear? Or maybe one that used to be your favorite but now has a few unsightly moth holes? I have the best way to repurpose a sweater and that is: make a pumpkin! The soft, chunky pumpkins at the store can get pricey, but I’m going to show you an easy way to turn a sweater into a pumpkin in less than half an hour.
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Pumpkin Pillow Tutorial
Materials:
- One sweater or knit-fabric shirt
- Cotton yarn
- Darning needle
- Extra yarn or twine for wrapping around pumpkin
- Cork or short stick for stem
- Polyfill stuffing
- Hot glue gun and extra glue sticks
Instructions:
- Lay out your sweater and cut the bottom off if you don’t like the ribbed texture at the bottom (you can skip this step if you don’t mind the appearance of the bottom of the sweater). I would recommend getting a sweater from the thrift store if you don’t have one that you want to sacrifice.
- Thread your darning needle with a sturdy cotton yarn and begin stitching a running stitch across the bottom of the edge so that you can begin gathering it together. This will create the bottom part of your pumpkin.
- Once you’ve gathered the bottom, you can secure your yarn with a square knot hidden inside.
- Cut the top piece off of the sweater (near the armpit where the body meets the arms).
- Stuff the bottom lightly with polyfil stuffing.
- Begin to gather the top with the yarn using a running stitch just as you did with the bottom. Once you are almost done closing the top, add more stuffing until your pumpkin is nice and puffy.
- Fasten off your yarn. Using a long piece of twine attached to a darning needle, thread the twine through the bottom of the pumpkin all the way to the top.
- Wrap the pumpkin on the side tightly and repeat, threading through the bottom and top again. Repeat until you have sectioned off parts of your pumpkin to make ridges. If you pull taut, the fabric will hide the twine completely. Fasten off the twine once you are happy with your sections.
- Go back and make sure both holes (top and bottom) are closed and secure.
- Take a hot glue gun and glue down a cork to the top to create a stem. If you don’t have a cork laying around, you can always use a stick or a piece of contrasting fabric.
Now you should have a cute and cuddly pumpkin that you can display for years to come! I love that this pumpkin was so easy to create and it really only cost me a $4.99 thrift store shirt.
