Velvet Pumpkins – How To Make

‘Velvet Pumpkins – How To Make”  If you sew at all, these little velvet pumpkins will be easy to make and they look so pretty!  There are at least two ways to stuff them using poly fiber fill or, my favorite, using the little plastic pellets and the patterns below.  (We are an Amazon affiliate and will receive a small percentage of any sale from these links at no cost to you.  Thanks for supporting this website!)

 

►pumpkin pattern download  ►pumpkin stem pattern download

Sewing The Pumpkin

Cut 6 pumpkin pieces of one size from velvet or velour fabric.  Place two of the cut pieces, right sides together, matching the edges on one side and pinning.  Sew a 1/4″ seam leaving 3/4″ open at the top.  Trim threads.

Place another pumpkin piece, right sides together, matching an edge to one of the pieces you have just sewn together.   Pin together and sew, leaving 3/4″ open at the top.  back-stitch one or two stitches.  (This helps hold the seam together when the piece is being filled or stuffed.)

Continue sewing the remaining sections together in the same way, until all 6 sections have been sewn together.  Then, match the 2 loose edges together, pin, and sew a 1/4″ seam, being sure the bottom end is completely closed.  (You don’t want the pellets slipping out of the pumpkin!)

When all the pieces have been sewn together, you should have a shape that looks like this.

Filling With Plastic Pellets

Turn the velvet pumpkin right side out and fill with poly fiber fill or plastic pellets.  I tried a few different ways to fill the pumpkin with these pellets, straight from the bag, using a funnel, but found the easiest and less messy way was to fill a small glass and pour into the pumpkin shape.

 

 

 

 

When your pumpkin has been filled to the top,  hand stitch the 3/4″ opening at the top of the seam and knot the thread.  Repeat for each section.  Before finishing the last section, be sure you have extra thread to sew a gathering stitch around the top, which will be used to pull the pumpkin closed.  (The easier way to do that follows.)

Then, tie the knot, run a gathering stitch through each section, about 1/4″ from the top.  Pull that section up tight and hold with your thumb and forefinger.  Run the needle through the fabric where your gathering stitch is and pull tight.  Take a couple of stitches to securely hold this section.  

Repeat this process until the top is completely closed.  (I figured this one out after wrestling with it for awhile!  It is much easier this way!)

At this point, you can glue a dried stem, or attach any stem you can dream up, but I decided to make a stem from felt for this little pellet filled pumpkin. 

 

 

 

The Stem

 I knew what I wanted the end product to look like and after a while, I came up with this hand stitched felt stem.  Embroidery floss was used to stitch the three sections together.  The seams are supposed to mimic the lines and indentations in real pumpkin stems.  Using the pattern at the top of this post, you can make your own, too.   Making the pumpkin with the plastic pellets and the felt stem, it is virtually childproof!

The downloadable pattern explains how to sew the felt stem together.  It is then, just stitched to the top of the velvet pumpkins.