Teachers of Good Things Fabric Pumpkins

So clearly I'm making up for lost time with the posting tonight, but it's about to get CA-RAZY up in here, so I'm doing it while I can. I mentioned a couple posts ago that we did another Walridge Baptist Church Teachers of Good Things Quarterly Craft Meeting. You know, the WBCToGTQCM for short. This month was so fun! We made fabric pumpkins, and they turned out SO CUTE!

We took our inspiration and general game plan from this post at Coastal Farmhouse, and if I can ever get my hands on some of that gorgeous snowy vintage chenille I'm going to make some just like hers!

Rachael and I hit Joann's for supplies and went a little nuts (within the budget of course). I'm so pleased with the fabrics we ended up with! Rachael graciously took on the task of cutting all the circles out because, hello, have you met my scissor skills? She cut 2 sizes, 18 inches and 9 inches, which made roughly 12 and 6 inch pumpkins. The tutorial linked very helpfully gives you measurements for a lot more sizes. We also cut freehand leaves out of all the fabric.

This is more of a list tutorial than a photo tutorial, because I was so busy making pumpkins that I mostly got photos of finished items. But here are the basics:

Supplies:
Fabric circles in various sizes
Polyfil
Needles and thread
Deer corn
Stems/short sticks
Various embellishments like buttons and twine
Hot glue guns

Start by threading your needle, tying a large knot in the end, and sewing a loose running stitch all the away around your circle, about a half inch from the edge. Loosely gather the circle into a pouch, right side out.

Add between 1/2-1 cup of deer corn in the pouch, then fill the rest with Polyfil. Carefully pull the thread tight to close the circle at the top. Tie the thread off, then choose a stem.

Squirt a good glob of hot glue down into the top of the pumpkin, then push the stem in all the way to the bottom and twist. Hold it there for a second to let the glue set.

Add embellishments of your choice like fabric leaves, buttons, and twine.

About our supplies:

The deer corn came in a 40 pound bag from Walmart for something like $6. We had plenty left of course, but we also play cornhole at church camp every year, and the bags have to be repaired about once a year, so any excess will be used for that. Funny detail - the first bag we bought was actually half deer kibble, which we didn't realize until we opened it up right before the event. Fortunately Walmart is about 5 minutes from the church. :)

You will need lots of Polyfil for this project. If you're doing this for a group, you will probably need more than a 3lb bag.

While we did have a few real pumpkin stems, most of our stems were just short sticks Rachael gathered from around her home, and I liked them even better than the real stems. Before using, you will want to bake any natural items like this in your oven for a couple of hours at 175 degrees or so, checking every 15 minutes to make sure they don't catch fire. This will kill any little creepy crawlies that may be hiding in the bark. Another awesome (but more expensive) option is to use a small bundle of cinnamon sticks as a stem.

The twine was just basic $1.97 a spool stuff from Walmart. We bought a 1/2 inch wooden dowel at Hobby Lobby, and I wrapped it tightly with the twine, then coated it with fabric stiffener and let it dry for 24 hours. The dowel was 36" long, and we cut it in small sections when it was dry, but we still ran out, so I would recommend making more than you think you'll need.

We got our buttons in big bags at Hobby Lobby for $5.99 minus the coupon savings, and I couldn't get enough of them! (Not an affiliate link)

This craft was a huge hit, and most ladies made more than one. My mom and my sister-in-law Leah, who is the pastor's wife, were on vacation with my dad and my brother and nephew, so I made some for them too.

These were my Mom's.

And these were Leah's. When she got back from vacation, she made a couple as a thank you gift for the neighbor who got their mail while they were gone.

I made these for the sweet lady who did the cooking for the event and for a dear church sister who unfortunately lost her husband the morning of the event and of course was not able to attend.

I also made some for Lily's teachers at school for Teacher Appreciation Week, and when I went for a parent teacher meeting this week with her main teacher she had them proudly displayed on her desk and told me how much she loved them!

This was a craft that was doable for everyone, and even Lily made a couple.

We all had a great time, and they were all so different, yet all so adorable! I just couldn't quit with them. I think I made 15 in all. The five at the top were the ones I took home, and they make me smile every time I see them. 

A few tips:

More corn means a heavier pumpkin that is going to stay put, but if your fabric is light and thin (like the muslin one above), it may show through if you add too much. Also, if your pumpkin is heavy, you will need to leave it sitting on the table while you're pulling the thread closed at the top so you don't break the thread. If you are making your pumpkin from burlap, it helps to tie the end of the thread to the burlap before running your stitch so that it doesn't just pull through. Also, burlap will tend to poke out around the stem if you stitch too close to the edge, so it's best to make your stitching line about an inch from the edge and tuck the raw edges into the top of the pumpkin before inserting your stem.

This was such a great craft, easy and inexpensive, especially if you are doing it for a group. Of course if you are just making a few for yourself and don't want to buy a 40 pound bag of corn, you can weight them with rice, dried beans, dried pasta, or poly pellets. Or you can leave them unweighted and just stuff them with Polyfil or scrap fabric. Rachael made a few from old sweaters as a test run that were unweighted and they turned out amazing!

Hopefully we will be in a new house next Thanksgiving, and I just want to make these and put them everywhere! And I love that they can be made to match or complement any color scheme. Make up a few for your holiday decor or to take as a thank you gift for your host on Thanksgiving - there's still plenty of time!

Thanksgiving Outfits

Did you guys have a good Thanksgiving? Ours was wonderful! Phenomenal food, a truly wonderful time with the whole family together, and babies, babies, babies! This year the 5 and under set included Lily - 5, Sawyer - 2, Levi - 2, Lawrence - 1, and Adelaide - 6 1/2 months.

A few weeks ago my sis-in-law and fellow Pinterest addict Rachael and I were oohing and aahing over some cute little dresses online, and we decided that we should make matching Christmas dresses for Lily and Adelaide. Then we decided that we might as well go ahead and come up with something cute for them to wear for Thanksgiving. And if we were going to make the girls matching dresses, we couldn't leave their brothers out. So we decided to make Sawyer and Levi matching turkey shirts. And of course if we were going to make them for Sawyer and Levi, their cousin Lawrence was going to need one too. And if Sawyer, Levi, and Lawrence were going to be little gobblers, then we certainly had to make one for Jackson, their honorary cousin. You can see how my crafting gets out of control.

So anyway, Rachael, my sis-in-law Leah (Lawrence's mom) and I got together for a day of sewing, and we made dresses for the girls and shirts for the boys.

I made Sawyer a turkey onesie like this for his first Thanksgiving when he was not quite 11 months old. I've mentioned that he was a preemie, and while he's all caught up now, for a long time he was very small for his age. I just have to show you what a ridiculously cute, tiny little turkey he was in 2012. This was a 3 month onesie.

Gah! Why isn't he so tiny anymore?

Anyway, we decided to make peasant dresses for the girl with their initial appliqued on them. We followed this tutorial, and let me tell you: Mind. Blown. This was SO easy! I'm going to make tons of these! In fact, it's what we'll make for them to wear for Christmas too, and I already have the perfect corduroy pulled out to make one as a Christmas gift for Lily. And I plan on making a matching one for her doll. I also made one for my friend Amy's little girl's birthday, and I barely got it out the door without Lily claiming it, despite it being 3 sizes too small for her lol.

Please excuse the picture. I ran out of time to shoot it at home, so I snapped a quick pic of it laid out on the Jake and the Neverland Pirates coloring table at the party. :)

Here are Lily and Addie in their matching dresses and headbands.

It's hard to see the monograms here, but Lily's has an L and Addie's has an A in brown corduroy just above the hem on the right side.

And the turkeys...

Want to see the back? Here you go...

Which of course quickly turned into this:

Not to worry, soon they were best buddies again. :)

The shirts were just purchased black t-shirts with turkey faces and feathers hand cut from eco-felt and just sewn on with a straight stitch. We even freehanded the pieces. Easy peasy!

Therapeutic Crafting

Life is best for me when I take time to make things. Sometimes when I get overwhelmed with kids and housework and errands and everything that goes with having a full, although beautiful life, I have to put myself in front of my sewing machine or turn on my glue gun or pull out my jewelry wire, or just create something that wasn't there before. It doesn't have to be anything big or elaborate, but just the process of making something appealing is balm to my soul. This past week or so has been full of tiny projects. Excuse some of the photos as cell phone pics not actually intended for the blog. :)

I've made up a few hair bows, like these Frozen themed ones. My friend Amy's little girls were going to see Frozen on Ice that evening, and she called and asked if she could bring me some ribbon and have me come up with some quick bows to match their dresses.

She also dropped off a roll of this Christmas ribbon she found at the thrift store for 49¢, so I made this one too.

Her youngest daughter is turning three in a few days and will be celebrating with a Jake and the Neverland Pirates themed party, so I made this one for the birthday girl.

I made Lily this woven headband to match my niece's Thanksgiving headband. Clearly this is one of the not-actually-taken-for-the-blog-pics. 

And I found this velvet ribbon in my stash, and I don't think I'd ever laid eyes on it before. Sometimes people pass along to me random craft supplies they're getting rid of. Like this one time my Aunt Tina gave me bags full of vintage lace and trim and ribbon and fabric remnants and it was basically the best thing ever. And I don't think this ribbon came from her, but it found its way to me in much the same manner, and I kind of love it, so thank you to whoever gave it to me. I made this sweet bow that is going to look awesome with some little girl's pretty velvet Christmas dress!

I made my niece this ginormous rosette headband using the remnants of the blanket I made her. It's so soft!

My friend Rebecca asked me to make her daughter a leather and stamped copper cuff. She couldn't decide which color she wanted so I made up an extra leather strap she can switch the plate out on if she likes.

I also made myself a new pincushion out of this sweet little vintage tart tin I found at a thrift store. I have some similar cupcake tins I plan on turning into pincushions too, so I will do a tutorial in the near future.

I've been playing with the Gift Box Punch Board my mom got me for my birthday, and I'll do a tutorial on it coming up. So fun!

And I finally found the pinwheel attachments to use with the Pinwheel Punch Board, so that will be on the blog soon too!

My daughter Taylor has been feeling a bit crafty herself. She made this sweet paper banner that says ROACH FAMILY. And why yes, that is a sippy cup so fetchingly displayed on my mantle. Don't be jealous.

She also made these awesome scrapbook paper snowflakes and decorated the wall at the stair landing. I love how unique and festive they all are!

What sort of crafts do you find relaxing and therapeutic?

Thanksgiving Headband

Happy November! Can you even believe it's almost Thanksgiving already? And that means it's just a hop, skip, and a jump to......Christmas. I don't want to talk about it. I could not be more unprepared.

What I do have prepared though is a tutorial for a very cute headband for the toddler or baby girl in your life!

This one went to my gorgeous niece Adelaide, but I will probably make another one for Lily so they can match.

To make this easy headband, first you will need a leaf/petal shape in 3 graduating sizes cut from cardstock. I just free-handed a design for the first one, cut it out, then cut around it a bit bigger to get the middle size one, then cut around that one to get the biggest. Trust me, I am not what you would call skilled at drawing or cutting things out, so if I can do this, so can you. My smallest shape was about 1.5 inches high, and they went up from there.

Now you want to choose three colors of felt. For the turkey of course I went with yellow orange and brown, but this basic construction can be made with lots of different themes.

Decide what order you want your colors to be layered, and cut nine petals of the largest size from the back color, 9 of the medium size from the middle color, and 9 of the small size from the top color.

Stack them like this, gluing them together with hot glue. Repeat with the rest of the petals until you have 9 petal stacks.

Next, run a short line of glue down from the middle of the bottom part of the smallest petal to the bottom edge of the biggest petal like this.

Then pinch the bottom of the petal stack together and hold for a few seconds till the glue sets. Repeat for the other 9 petal stacks.

You will also need a scrap piece of felt cut 1 x 3 inches.

Now, run a line of glue on the lower half of the side of one of the petal stacks and glue another petal stack right beside it. 

Glue another one to the side of that one, so that you have three petal stacks glued side by side at the base. Repeat that with the rest of the petal stacks so that you have three sets of three side by side petals. Glue them to the scrap of felt, starting at the top and moving down, overlapping each one just a little and leaving a little bit of room at the bottom for the turkey.

Now for the actual turkey I used one of these fun little felt stickers that got in a 7 pack at Michael's for $1.00.

Just glue it right to the bottom of the felt strip, overlapping the bottom layer of petals. I didn't remove the white paper from the back of the turkey, because I didn't want the adhesive exposed since it is not laying against a flat surface.

Look how cute already! Wouldn't it also make a great embellishment for a gift bag or even a little Thanksgiving shirt?

Now cut a length of elastic appropriate to the size headband you want to make. This was a fold over elastic hair tie I got in a six pack at the Dollar Tree and just untied, thus the wrinkled end. Glue the elastic into a circle, overlapping the ends.

Glue your turkey embellishment to the headband and you're all done!