DIY Felted Sweater Pumpkin

This DIY project for these CHARMING felted sweater pumpkins started out with my need (want) for small white pumpkins to finish out my Fall Decor in my home.  I began to think about how I could achieve this without spending a dime?  My solution was to create my own white mini-pumpkins from items I had on hand and also to redeem a long-standing habit of mine…shrinking wool sweaters.   I have been, on occasion aptly named the “shrink queen”.  Not a title I am fond of but none the less my shrinking skills have enabled me to make this project for nothing!

As you can see from the picture below, I happened to save this beautiful wool cardigan sweater that I shrunk a few years back.  I used only the sleeves for this project and will save the remaining felted wool for two other DIY projects I have in the works.

DIY Felted Sweater Pumpkin

Supplies

• old felted sweater in any color you want your pumpkin.  (The thrift store is a great place to pick up wool sweaters to wash and shrink)
• scissors
• old green felted wool sweater for the leaves
• 7-inch branch trimmed from a tree in your yard
• thread
• needle
• garden pruners

1. Cut an 8-inch section from the sleeve of your felted sweater.  The length of the sleeve will determine the size of your pumpkin.

2. Cut two to three one inch leaves or smaller out of another green felted sweater.  (This one used to be a beautiful cardigan zip sweater from L.L. Bean!)

3. Find a tree in your yard and prune a branch approximately 7 inches in size (once again this will depend on the size of your felted sweater pumpkin.)

4. Turn the section of the sweater sleeve inside out.  Hand-stitch around the top and bottom of the sleeve. Use a matching color of thread. I used a contrasting thread color to be able to show the thread in the picture.  The wider part of the sleeve will be the bottom of the pumpkin.

5. Knot the bottom of the pumpkin very tightly, so no hole is visible.  Turn the back to the right side.  And tighten the top of the pumpkin leaving a slight hole for the stem to be pushed into.

6. Gently push your pruned branch into the center, top, opening of the sleeve.  Tuck in the sweater edges around the stem.

7. Position the leaves on the top of the sweater pumpkin and attach each leaf individually.

8. These pumpkins do not need to be stuffed.  The stick keeps the sweater pumpkin the size you want it, just adjust the sweater to the shape you want your pumpkin to be and Voila…you are done!

This is a great project to teach your children how to hand sew.  The felted wool is very forgiving and the stitches do not need to be exact for this project.

I hope you will enjoy this EASY DIY project!

Blessings,