Pumpkins are my favourite autumnal/ Halloween decoration and I love covering any flat surface of my house in a miscellaneous scattering of gourds as soon as it hits August. I remember a few years back, velvet pumpkins were really trendy and to be honest, I still love them and they are really easy to make. The joys of velvet pumpkins are that you can make them in any size or colour you like so it’s great for suiting all spaces of your home and, you can also use other autumnal fabrics in case velvet isn’t your vibe. I have been wanting to make these velvet pumpkins for over 4 years and this year, THIS YEAR, is the year I will finally make that happen. As I’m still in the process of putting together my sewing room, I wanted to make some pink and orange pumpkins to match the space so that’s what I’ll finally be making this year.

Materials
-Velvet (or fabric) in colours of your choice
-Scissors or rotary cutters
-Cutting Mat
-Needle and Thread in same colour as your velvet
-Poly-fill or pillow stuffing
-Stem of choice: cinnamon stick, plastic pumpkin stem, real pumpkin stem or stick
-Something round to create a circle template
-Other decorative items of your choice eg; spiders, glitter, fake leaves etc.

Method
-Place down your cutting mat and put your velvet on top of the mat, velvet side facing down. Then grab your round object which you will be using as a template. Using your scissors or rotary cutter, cut a circle around your template.

-Thread your needle and sew a running stitch along the outer edge of your velvet circle. A running stitch is a basic sewing method of weaving your needle in and out of your fabric constantly moving forward. Once you’ve sewn all the way around, make sure you have lots of thread free on both ends.

-Pull your thread together and your velvet circle should gather and turn into a drawstring pouch. Fill your pouch with polyfill. If you are looking for an environmentally friendly alternative to polyfill, you can use old cushion stuffing or sewing scraps. I tend to collect all my sewing scraps and use them as toy filling or for projects like this.

-Once your pumpkin is filled with stuffing, carefully tie off your threads. You might need to ask someone to hold the thread down as doing this on your own can be super fiddly and frustrating. Don’t pull your threads super hard because they can snap.

-You should now have a round velvet puff ball. Pull both ends of your thread over and under the pumpkin. On the underside, twist the threads over each other once and pull the threads back to the top of the pumpkin but going up a different side. Twist the threads again and pull the threads back underneath going down a different side of the pumpkin and then tie off your threads. You may need help with this step as well.

This step helps create the bulbs of the pumpkin and turns it from looking like a round squishy ball into something that looks like a pumpkin. You can adjust the bulbs after you tie them off to make sure they are more even all the way around the pumpkin. Depending on how long your thread is when you start creating the bulbs, you can make as many bulbous sections as you want. I was aiming for 8 sections but couldn’t stretch my thread that far so I landed on just 6 bulbs which I loved.

-Your last step is to add a pumpkin stem inside the gathered end of the pumpkin which you can do by pushing in the jagged end of the plastic stems, or by adding some hot glue and your normal stick, cinnamon stick or dried pumpkin stem.

-You’re done! make as many as you want, in whatever size you want and in what ever colour your want. You can further decorate your pumpkins with glitter, dried leaves, fake spiders or other cute and fun things. You can even cut out a jack o lanterns facial features using black velvet and attaching it to your pumpkins.

This tutorial can really be changed and utilised to suit your decorative preferences. These pumpkins can be used as decoration for Halloween or autumnal displays, you can make small ones and turn them into a cute garland, or you can glue them on top of each other and make them into a pumpkin stack.
If you make these pumpkins rather large, you can make them into useable cushions or as decorative features on sofas or couches. The possibilities are endless and I am hoping that next year I can make a heap and turn the into a wall garland.

This tutorial can also be adjusted to suit your personal decorative style. As I have just redone my back area in a retro style mainly around the colours of pink and orange, this means I can make cute pink and orange pumpkins to match. I want to get a darker pink velvet and make more for my sewing room but this is all a project for next year.

If you do end up making this tutorial, please tag me in any photos your may share on social media. I love seeing your creations!

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.