I've had a tradition for many years now of creating stuffed fabric pumpkins for Fall. I usually start out intending to make a couple and then go a little crazy.
I create almost exclusively from vintage materials, and most of these pumpkins reflect that. My most favorite pumpkins are the ones I made from this crazy, flower power 1960s/70s fabric I found recently:
Next favorite are the ones I made by piecing different vintage fabrics together, like this:
I topped this one with a doily, snippets of lace fabric and a very old bloom from a corsage. The pale floral fabric just under the longer piece of lace fabric is something I salvaged from a dress dated in the 1880s.
I have to say that combining the reds, pinks and greens makes it my very favorite.
Here's more of that same fabric in another pumpkin; this time I tied a piece of crochet lace around the stem...
and decorated the front lavishly with colored seam binding that was a gift from a swap partner! I love how she threaded it through that small buckle!
For this one, I do believe the oldest fabric is the rick-rack like pink and beige, textured fabric that was a gift from an antique dealer. I had a lot of fun matching the muted pinks and greens with embellishments!
I cut the pale green leaves from a felted sweater, and used a different sweater to roll into a stem.
A doily decorates the patchwork pumpkin; the fabric is newer but probably still vintage if you consider 20+ years vintage, as some do.
How much do you love that pom pom trim? It is some of the oldest vintage trim I own -- not in terms of its age (but it is old), but because it's among the first I ever found at a thrift store and had to have! Check out my other blog,
Button Floozies for more info on the buttons I used on these pumpkins!
I made these two pumpkins from a pillow sham that someone long ago sewed from feedsacks. It's not easy to see the color -- but it is a very very pale blue/green.
After sewing it into a round and stuffing it, I tied this fabulous, wispy antique crochet lace around it tightly to create the pumpkin shape. I left long edges of the lace to look like leaves.
The flower on the front shows more closely the true color of the fabric; it is a perfectly-matched bud from another 1880s dress I rescued from an auction.
The original pillow sham was backed with plain off-white feedsack cotton, which I used to make the stem of this one, and tied closed with these strips of fabric which I tied on to the back just for completeness.
This matching pumpkin was similarly made, but tied with seam binding. I draped a heavy crocheted trim piece over the top, again because it reminds me of leaves, and then this one got three of the antique rosettes.
Lastly, two little pumpkins made from newer pieced blocks that I rescued from the thrift store; they have such a bright punch of green that I decided to embellish them with new purple ribbon. Their stems and a little decoration on the reverse are from that fabulous crazy flower fabric!
Pumpkin making is good for your soul! Have you made any, this year or before?
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