Friday's Fail: The less than perfect pumpkin

The first pumpkin I made last weekend, didn't turn out all that well. I made 2 mistakes.

1. I didn't stuff it enough...
2. But more of a problem - I hadn't thought of using a button to use on the top and bottom. I just tried winding the string around the previous piece. I couldn't get enough tension, I kept pulling the other ridges out of place. It didn't go well.

Here is a picture of the less than perfect pumpkin:

He just doesn't have the right firmness to him. (Yes, it is a boy, don't let the shinny fabric fool you.)

And the underside of the pumpkin:

I couldn't get enough tension to really get it to work and it was just awful.

I almost gave up. Had I not thought of the button solution I think I would have given up.

But then, I thought of the button. Here is the underside of a button pumpkin:

So much neater... and just look at the tension I was able to get by winding around the button:

Now, THAT is a pumpkin!!! Isn't she beautiful???

And look at this little guy (yes, another boy.)

Ready for the funny part - what first seemed like a terrible fail, my less than perfect pumpkin. The one that almost had me ready to give up. Well, he now works in the collection of pumpkins. I wouldn't want to have him be the only pumpkin, but with all his friends and family around him - he totally works.

Just goes to show you - just because something didn't work the first time doesn't mean you should give up... and don't necessarily throw away that "fail" until you've really seen the total picture.

Baby Bear's Butt Goes Here -->

Some how, over the past 3 and half years... my sweet baby boy, has grown up. How did this sweet little guy... grow up???

Another sweet adorable baby picture since I didn't have this blog when Baby Bear was a baby...

I mean seriously - a baby that cute? There should be a law against them growing up don't you think???

Well, it happened, he's grown up and that sweet little baby, is now a little boy:

Being a 3 year old little boy, it is time for preschool. Our preschool asks parents to decorate and bring in a wash cloth to be used as their "Sit Upon." They tell you the decorating is optional... at least that is what my husband said, I don't know about that. I stopped listening and started planning as soon as they said "decorate."

And so that is how, yesterday morning, I brought my sweet baby bear outside to snap this very first 1st day of school photo with his "buddy" in one hand and his big boy "sit upon" in the other.

Here is what I used to create Baby Bear's sit upon.

• Wash cloth
• Heat n Bond
• 2 Fat Quarter of fabric
• Ribbon
• Thread
• Iron
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors

Step 1 - Iron the Heat Bond to the wrong side of the fat quarters.

Step 2 - Cut out the desired shape... in this case, his name, out of one of the fabrics.

Step 3 - Remove the backing of the heat bond and iron them to the other fat quarter.

Step 4 - Cut around the letters and then iron the pieces onto the wash clothe.

Step 5 - Then, using a contrasting thread, a thicker one that I usually would be this is preschool, I zig-zagged around the letters.

Step 6 - Next, an orange ribbon around the edge because in our family, you can't have blue without orange. You just can't.

One more look at the sweet baby bear getting ready to head off to preschool.

*sigh* I love being Momma Bear to this little guy.

Pumpkin Love

I just love it when inspiration for a project and completion of the project are just hours apart. So often, especially with me, projects take weeks to go from an idea to a completed project...

But not this one. Or should I say, these ones...

Meet my little collection of pumpkins. I know, they aren't orange... I do have some orange fabric, and I'll make a few orange pumpkins, but these neutral tones, this mix of textures, they were my original vision that I just had to go with.

Here is how they started - by finding this silly little red fabric apply while shopping for supplies for another project at JoAnn's on Saturday.

I picked it up - and thought "too bad this wasn't a pumpkin."

Muahahaha...

Over to the remnant section I went to find all sort of wonderful textured neutral fabrics. I'll admit it, I didn't say limited to the remnant section, I did buy a few off the bolt... But I have another project to make use of all the scraps to it was well worth it.

Here is how I made my little collection of pumpkin love...

Materials:

• Fabric
• Paper (to make your pattern)
• Tread
• String, twine or yarn
• Sharpie, marker or pen
• Fabric scissors
• Paper scissors
• Streamers
• 2 buttons (per pumpkin)
• LONG needle. I mean LONG - The one I used was 4".
• You can ignore the twig pictured above, I thought I was going to use it. I didn't. 
• Hot glue (not pictured)
• Pins (not pictured)
• Polyfil (not picture)

Step 1 - Create your paper pattern. You'll need 6 pieces of fabric exactly the same size and shape, so create a pattern from a piece of paper:

1B - Fold the paper in half corner to corner. (This just maximizes the size of the paper, you're really welcome to fold it anyway you please... go ahead... go wild with the way you fold your paper. As long as it is in half.)

1C - Draw an arc along the fold.

1D - Cut the arc and open it to reveal your pattern shape. (Please use paper scissors... Don't ruin your sewing scissors on paper... don't do it.)

Step 2 - Pin the pattern to your fabric and cut 6 identical pieces. Depending on your quality of scissors you might be able to get all 6 of your pieces cut at once.

Step 3 - Pin the fabric in pairs, right sides together.

Step 4 - Sew the pairs, right sides together down the right arc.

Step 5 - With the 3 pairs sewn together, take 2 of the pairs and sew them together, right sides together.

Step 6 - Add the 3rd pair and sew it to the first 2, right sides together, being sure to leave about a 2-3" gap so you can turn it right side out.

Step 7 - Flip the fabric right side out and stuff the sucker full of stuffing. Hand sew the whole shut... (my least favorite part of any project where hand sewing is involved.)

Step 8 - Time to take this ball we've created (pictured above) and turn it into a pumpkin. Thread a button on the bottom of the ball where the 6 pieces some together. Then push the long needle through to the other side. I needed a pair of pliers to pull the needle through.

Then push the needle back down to the bottom of the pumpkin pulling the string as tight as you can so that the top and bottom buttons come together a bit and pucker the pumpkin.

It will look a bit like this:

Step 9 - Now it is time to make the ridges along the sides of the pumpkin by taking the string from top to bottom, around the button, then back from bottom to top, around the button and so on and so on. You can either evenly space the string, or you can vary it - whatever works for you.

Step 10 - Create a stem and tendrils out of the streamers and hot glue them to the top.

And there you - pumpkins!!!