little velvet pumpkins

 

 

  

 

for the last couple years

i've been seeing gorgeous velvet pumpkins in magazines

and stores. although I've been wanting a couple, i've never

even gotten close to actually buying any, because they are expensive.

 (approximately $65 for 3 of the little darlings.)

 

when i knew i was going to be seeing friends last weekend, i suggested

we try making some of our own. leslie and i both scrounged and

foraged and brought all the pumpkins stems we could get our

grubby little hands on. she also brought wonderful fabrics and i

purchased some on my way.

 

*the key to these being fabulous is to use real dried pumpkins stems.

nothing fake would ever work as well i don't think.

 

 

they are really, very simple to make- here's how we did it.

 

i used a dinner plate as a template for most of them for (and made a couple other smaller sizes as well) and drew around it

and cut it out of this crushed velour fabric.

next i used my sewing machine and after folding down a single

edge, i stitched a hem around the outside- leaving a

 small gap where the two sides came together- so we could insert a

piece of yarn (with a safety pin on one end) to draw through and hand gather.

 

            so, now we'd cut out circles, sewn around the edges, threaded

        a piece of yarn thru and pulled it tight to make a "pouch". to stuff them.

we used navy beans. after filling them to the top, I gathered them

as tight as I could and tied it off. the opening just

happened to be about the exact size needed to push a

pumpkin stem through and hot glue into place.

here's the whole bunch of them together. is it just me or do you

think they are the cat's meow?



another little demonstration i did for the girls was to show

them what my grama irene used to do with her

leftover pie crust. most moms just rolled it out and sprinkled

them with cinnamon and sugar but not my gran...

she made us mini cinnamon rolls!

Josie was happy to break up all the orange of the weekend, by

dressing in something christmasy- oh and giving us each a moustache to wear.

(girlfriend wasn't about wearing one of them herself though- and i could see why

when I pulled mine off and it was about as painful as a lip waxing).

bailey just layed very still on the couch-hoping noone

would notice and slap a stash on her too.

these are the pumpkins on my dining room table. they

are making me really happy. so happy in fact-that i may

even make some more this weekend. i have a few other

colors of velvet i could try.

                                                                     xo, beth