How to Make Thrifty Cloth Pumpkins from Sweaters

Those cute and cozy cloth pumpkins from Pottery Barn are much easier to DIY than you might think, not to mention so much more budget-friendly!

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A few weeks ago I took you around my home for my Fall Home Tour. If you looked closely, you probably picked up on stuffed pumpkins EVERYWHERE!

In total, I think I made 17 of these cute little fabric pumpkins and I’m so glad I did!

These are decorations that the girls can play with and they add texture and variation when mixed with other faux and real pumpkins!

They are a beautiful addition to any Fall décor.

I also love that I was able to repurpose old sweaters I hadn’t worn in forever into sweater pumpkins.

How do you make fabric pumpkins?

The easiest way to make fabric pumpkins from sweaters is to use the sleeves because the fabric is already sewn on one side.

This is one less place for you to have to sew!

A quick run down for how to make fabric pumpkins goes like this:

cut the sleeves off the sweater
sew one end closed
fill it with stuffing
sew the top
add the creases
add a stem

I made a few different sizes based on the size of the sleeves and the trunk of my sweaters.

The necks and sleeves of these sweaters were very baggy.

They made perfect templates for medium sized fabric pumpkins.

But for my smaller stuffed pumpkins, I did need to use a sewing machine.

Supplies for Cloth Pumpkins

Old Sweaters (I think old sweat pants would work great too)
Dental Floss/Heavy embroidery thread
Needle
Scissors
Polyfill
Hot Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Sticks
Sewing Machine (for the custom sizes)

How to Make Cloth Pumpkins

Step 1.

The first thing I did was cut the sleeves and neck off the sweaters.

Step 2.

After the neck and sleeves were removed, I turned them inside-out.

This puts the seam on the outside.

Step 3.

Then, I used dental floss to sew one end closed. This end will be the bottom of the pumpkin. I sewed the bottom closed about 1 inch from the edge.

After I sewed all the way around the edges and cinched it tight, I wrapped the floss around the tide a few knots for extra strength.

(HINT: I’m sure they make a stronger thread, but the thread I had was thin and weak. I broke it multiple times with these thick sweaters. So I grabbed some dental floss and it was magic! I didn’t break it once!)

I did make some other fabric pumpkins with much thinner material, and my regular thread worked fine for those.

Here are a couple of posts about how I decorated with them in the living room and the kitchen.

It completely depends on the thickness of the material you’re working with.

Step 4.

After the hole was cinched as tight as I could possibly get it, I turned it right-side-out.

By doing this it puts the 1-inch edge and the seam on the inside of the pumpkin.

Step 5.

Next, I filled the sack with polyfill.

I filled my pumpkins as much as I possibly could.

I wanted these pumpkins to look full and not floppy.

But this often meant I was pulling polyfill out of the pumpkin, in the end, because I had overloaded it haha.

Step 6.

After the pumpkin was full, I began sewing the top closed with dental floss.

For this opening, I got much closer to the edge. By getting closer to the edge, I was able to create a better shape for applying the stem later.

Step 7.

Now that I had sewed all around the edge, I cinched it closed as tight as possible.

In most cases, I was able to get this opening to be completely closed because of how close to the edge I was sewing.

I struggled with it initially, but I learned if I tied the first knot into a bow and then pulled the bow tight before pulling the ends of the thread through, I had more control over the tightness of the knot.

Step 8.

Now that the cloth pumpkin is a ball filled with stuffing, it’s time to add the creases.

To do this, I took the needle loaded with the dental floss and stuck it up from the bottom of the pumpkin to the top through right the middle.

After I had the needle through, I wrapped that end back to the bottom of the pumpkin and tied a knot.

For this step, sometimes I left the floss a little looser, and sometimes I made it tighter.

I like the way a real pumpkin doesn’t necessarily have a perfect rhythm to the creases on the outside and I wanted these fabric pumpkins to emulate that.

Step 9.

After repeating step 8 multiple times, I pulled out the hot glue gun to attach the stems.

First I picked the sticks that would be the right size for my pumpkin, then I broke them and brought them into the house.

Next, I took the hot glue gun and glued the stick in the middle of the top of the sweater pumpkin.