Pumpkins in August!!

I found a beautiful orange men's sweater at Goodwill...for $3, thinking I would eventually make some felted wool something or other with it.   I was cruising blog land and found a pumpkin tutorial here.

Well, I bookmarked the site and thought I would make some fabric pumpkins at some point. 

One day I was going through my felted wool/sweater stash (yes, I have such a stash) and found the orange sweater.  It didn't felt real snugly, but it was such a great fall color...just perfect for the pumpkin project.  I cut the pieces (there is a downloadable pattern on the site) out and tucked them away in a plastic ziploc. 

Well, since I am doing "lap crafts" now because I can't bear weight on my left leg now, I dug out the ziploc and without following the directions, sewing all eight panels together. I had forgotten that I had cut two pumpkins out!!!

So anyway, here is what I did and it turned out fine, just a lot bigger than the original pattern.

The original oval type shape...

I sewed them all together with the seams on the outside for more rustic effect (should pumpkins be rustic?). 

I left one side open for stuffing...and then I began to stuff it like it was a Thanksgiving stuffing.  I used Morning Glory brand Cluster Stuff which is the best stuff I have ever used!  It is not lumpy at all, sort of reminds me of foam stuffing without all the mess. 

After stuffing almost a full bag into this poor little guy, I sewed the hole shut.

Then I took a felted green sweater and cut leaves out of it (I did a google search to get an idea of what pumpkin leaves are supposed to look like).  This particular sweater had a drawstring hood so I used the drawstring to create the curlicues on top.  I hot glue the leaves right onto the top, after I created a vein down the middle of each leaf.  I also made one leaf smaller than the other one, figuring that leaves in nature are not perfectly the same.

I even hid a sweater seam I couldn't avoid underneath a leaf on the top. 

And there it is~~an August pumpkin!!

There was a question about how I got the wool ties to make curlicues...I wet them with a heavy spray starch and then wrapped them around a size 8 knitting needle with clothespins on each end to hold them onto the knitting needle.  I let them dry overnight and then they were ready!