dressing up my windowseat

Guess what? I was going to post my first tutorial for this project. But I can't. Because I was planning on taking pictures of Round Two, so I didn't take any pictures of Round One, and now. my. sewing machine. is. broken.

Augh!!!

What am I going to do? I am having sewing withdrawals. I don't know what I did. I was just stitching up my opening on the baby pumpkin you see in the background of the pictures when my needle got caught (which happens a lot). So I turned the knob to move the needle out of the fabric and the knob clicked twice and then twisted off in my hand. I don't know how to fix it. My mom is coming in October, so maybe she can help me, but until then I am going to have to actually do my homework for Psychology and Physical Science instead of sewing during naptime.

Well, on to my non-tutorial.

I wanted to make some fabric pumpkins because all of my other decorative pumpkins are wayyyy too breakable for this family. So I picked out three fall-ish fabrics (at Wal-Mart, of all places) and got 1/3 of a yard of each.

First I cut two "football" shapes out of each piece of fabric. I didn't have a pattern, but I figured it would be pretty important for every piece to be exactly the same size and shape, so here is the technique I used: I folded the fabric in half length-wise, right sides together, and then used a crayon to draw a half "football" shape on the fold. That makes both sides of your piece identical. Mine was about 12 inches tall by 3 inches across the widest part of the middle. I cut it out and opened it up and it became 12 inches by 6 inches across the widest part. I then used this first piece of fabric as my template for the other five pieces. You'll choose measurement according to how tall or fat you want your pumpkin.

After I had all my pieces cut out, I put them in pairs, right side together. I obviously didn't want any of the same fabrics right next to each other, so I didn't pair them together. I sewed the fabric together along one side, backstitching at the top and bottom.
After all three pairs were sewn together, I started sewing the pairs together. The easiest way to do that is to "open" both pairs of "footballs" and put one inside the other (right sides together). Then stitch along one side.

After I sewed two pairs together, I made my stem. I just cut out two stem-shaped pieces of fabric, sewed them right sides together, turned it right-side out, stuffed it, and stitched up the bottom. When you sew your last pair of footballs to the half-finished pumpkin, stick the stem in there at the top with the points (pointed down, of course). Don't forget to leave an opening for turning and stuffing as you sew your last pieces together!

After it's all sewn, turn it right-side out and stuff. I didn't fill mine completely, because I wanted it to be a squat sort of pumpkin.

Stitch your opening closed and voila! A stuffed pumpkin perfect for your kids to kick, drop, squish, and cuddle to their hearts' content.