Sweater Pumpkins

Seriously, I'm just giddy with how much I love these!  I saw some sweater pumpkins at a craft show and was sure I could make them so I hit up a local thrift store and found the perfect colored sweaters to use.  I followed a tutorial I found here - this gal's page was very helpful in making them.  I really like her neutral pumpkins, but I need color in my living room.

I was worried that my pumpkins wouldn't be as cute as the ones I saw at the craft fair or the ones on the tutorial page, but I was blown away!  I love them more than any others I've ever seen!

The colors are perfect and I'm so excited that I made them!

 I should be selling these babies and make a nice little profit, but there's no way I would part with them - they are too cute!

  Maybe that many on my fireplace is overkill, but for now, they're staying.  And I have 8 more to make until all 4 sweaters are used up.

Here's my tutorial

Start with old sweater sleeves - these are the perfect size.  The bigger pumpkins I did were the whole sleeve, the others I cut the sleeves in half.  It's fun to experiment with different sizes.  The photo below are tubes I sewed from the body of the sweaters - but if you only use the sleeves, it's a completely no-sew project.

Turn the tube/sleeve inside out.

Cut 5 strands of jute 2-3 times the length of the sweater sleeve.

Tie all 5 strands together at one end.

Put the strands inside the sleeve.  If you are using the bottom of the sleeve and want to have the finished edge of the sleeve showing, put your knotted end on the cut side of the sweater.

Use another strand of jute (or any material) and tie the sweater around the strands, below the knot.

Flip the sweater right side in so it looks like this.

Now it's time to stuff - I found it easiest to set up my sweater like this.  I folded the top edge over (about an inch or so) and kind of formed a little bowl.  Your knotted end of jute will be sticking out the top of the pumpkin, so don't lose it while you're stuffing.

Stuff to your desired full-ness without losing the knot.  It doesn't need to be stuffed solid like a pillow or doll, just enough to hold it's shape.

Pull the knot up a little bit if needed and unfold the top edge.

Gather the sweater around the jute strands, grabbing below the knot.

Use another strand of jute and tie below the knot.  This is the key - you have to tie below the knot or the next step won't work.

All 5 strands of jute should be hanging out the bottom.  Grab one and pull it up to the pumpkin stem.  Hold it so it's coming straight up from the bottom, then wrap around the stem.

After you wrap it around the stem once, pull it under itself and go back the other direction.  This is kind of hard to explain, but you need it to stay straight from the bottom to top or it won't look like a pumpkin.

I used a little hot glue and glued the strand where it crossed itself, right below my thumb.  You might not need to do this, but it kept it in place while wrapping all the other strands.

Continue around the pumpkin with each strand of jute in the same way, gathering all the strands at the top as you go.  When all strands are done, grab them all together and start wrapping around the stem.

Just keep wrapping until you've come to the end of your strands or you're satisfied with the height of your stem.

Hot glue the ends down.

You can either trim the top of the sweater off so it's flat with the top of the jute or leave some sticking out.  I like having a combo of both.  When the top edge of the sweater was the finished sleeve end, it looked nice just sticking up.

Voila!  Sweater pumpkins!  So easy and so cute!  I found the little felt leaves at the dollar store - 20 in a pack - the colors were perfect!

Have I mentioned how much I love fall? :)