sweater pumpkins

I recently attended a party that had sweater pumpkins as part of their table displays. I WAS IN LOVE. I knew that they couldn't be hard to make, so I went to our nearest Salvation Army in hopes of finding a perfect sweater. Here is what I came up with... _________________________________________________ To make your own, you are going to need...
an old sweater scissors/rotary cutter 2 rubber bands polyfil stuffing twine seam ripper hot glue/glue gun liquid starch (optional) _________________________________________________ First off...I felt I hit the old sweater jackpot with this one. This sweater had the perfect assortment of fall colors that I couldn't wait to get started. It took every fiber of my control to leave it in the bag until I got home (I know...I'm weird). After my sweater was washed and dried, I started by "disassembling" it. I removed the sleeves  by cutting off the wrists and shoulders. This left me with a good chunk of arm material to work with. Using my seam ripper, I ripped a small hole in the seam of my sweater (just big enough for turning and stuffing). Next, with wrong sides out, I tied rubber bands around the open edges of my "pumpkin." Using the hole I created in my seam, I turned my sweater right side out.
  Next, I stuffed my sweater with soft polyfil stuffing. Once my pumpkin was stuffed to my liking I hot glued (Yes, thats right...hot glued) my seam shut. Trust me, hot glue was quick and easy and you'll never see it when you're complete. The first pumpkin I made, I cinched up the sides by threading twine through the middle of my pumpkin and pulling tight. This ended up being a lot of work. My second go round, I simply cut a long piece of twine and wrapped it around a number of times and tied it tightly. I secured the loose ends with a square knot and hot glue. It worked like a charm.

To finish everything off, I dipped some leftover twine in liquid starch and wrapper it around some kitchen utensils (and a pen) to make curlycues. I scavenged around in our backyard for some suitable twigs and hot glued my stem and twine curlies in place.

I'm so happy with the final product! It'll be the perfect decoration leading up to Halloween and will carry me through Thanksgiving (thanks to the wonderful fall colors of my sweater). I'm in sweater pumpkin love!

[p.s. this post may be linked to any number of these blogs]