Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Craft of the Week: Cloth Pumpkin Wreath


"Use what you have" is my mantra these days. What I had was a paint-stained shirt, a willow wreath from Christmas last year (part of this slideshow), and lots of little cloth pumpkins. You can see most of my materials here:
I decided to take my project outside since the weather was nice. Unfortunately my toddler was more interested in what I was doing than in playing in the yard, and he wedged the safety pins between the table slats. That was setback number one in what I thought would be a very simple craft.

Nevertheless, I proceeded to extract a strip of cloth from my ruined shirt (which I was glad to make useful once more). I found that I could get one very long strip by leaving both sleeves intact and cutting across the back of the shirt as shown:
Note that the two long sleeves remain connected by a strip of cloth about 6 to 8 inches wide. I also trimmed some of the fullness off of the shoulder area of each sleeve.

The next step: winding the cloth around the wreath. I then secured the ends together with a safety pin in the back. I also recommend glueing the stems inside the pumpkins to keep them from coming apart when attaching them.

To secure the cloth pumpkins, I used a combination of safety pins and thin beading wire, which I poked through the cloth and twisted through the wreath. Rather than wrestling with pumpkins and wire, I recommend using a needle and thread or hot glue to fix them onto the wreath.



This project and hundreds of other creative ideas can be found at Kimba's DIY Day. This post is also linked to Tuesday's Tip Jar.

5 comments:

KimMalk said...

@cheapchichome. This is the absolute best use of these little rag pumpkins that I've seen. Good thinking!

Jhona O. said...

Absolutely ADORABLE!!! I love this. I always look forward to these posts and I'm sure I tell you that every time. Ha! I really do:)

Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog said...

That turned out great! It screams, 'fall.'

Jennifer Juniper said...

It's amazing what you can come up with when you look around the house, isn't it?

Rebecca said...

I love this!