Monday Make: Pumpkin Garland…

So it occurred to me, as I was changing my home accessories to match the new season, that I was really lacking in autumnal themed objects. I decided I wanted to try and make one before heading to TKMaxx and purchasing one, and I’m so glad I did because I think what I made turned out super cute!

I picked up five polystyrene pumpkins from Hobbycraft at 50p each, and I already owned the needles, felt and jute. So technically this project cost me £2.50 and about 5 hours of my time on a lazy Sunday. Not bad huh?

I started off by roughly felting wool on to the pumpkin to create a base, and then went back over it with a second layer to fill in any gaps. Once I had the orange down, it was time to focus in on the detailing by repeatedly needling in between the sections to give it a proper shape. I attached the stalk and then needled in some jute string to enable them to be hung up. At this point I didn’t know whether they were going to hang at different levels as a bunch or in a garland.

I chose to felt two of the pumpkins in a darker rusty brown with a light stem and three in the classical orange with a dark stem. This was just to add a little variety, meaning I used four wool shades but technically if you were on a tighter budget, you’d only need two shades. I used one full pack and a bit for the three orange pumpkins so if you were planning on using the same colour for all 5 I’d suggest buying three 10gram packets of orange and only one of the green.

I chose to make them in to a garland as hanging bunch just didn’t quite sit right – they looked more like a radioactive bunch of garlic actually… At first I used slip knots to figure out where I wanted them all before tying them in to place a little more securely. The garland still didn’t look quite finished to me though: the tied knots and little tails of string looked untidy.

I decided that felting little balls on top of the knots was a nice decorative way to hide them, and I was much more pleased to call this it’s final look!

I am so happy with how it turned out! I think it’s cute and fun, and it felt way more satisfying making it myself than going out and buying something new. If we’re costing it up properly;

Jute String £1
2 x Orange Roving £3
1 x Rusty Brown Roving £1.50
1 x Dark Green Roving £1.50
1 x Light Green Roving £1.50
Felting Needle Tool £7
5 x Pumpkins £2.50

Grand Total = £18

Do you think that’s an okay total for a craft project? I certainly do. You’d have the needle tool for future projects, and you’d have the extra wool to play with too. I no doubt could have picked up something cheaper at TKMaxx but sometimes when creating handmade things saving money’s not the point.

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A Felt First…

So I actually completed these ages ago, but they were surprise gifts for some friends who I had yet to see so couldn’t put them online until now. They were ‘trials’ of a technique that I’ve never used before, as I’ve only ever needle-felted. It involves nothing more than cutting shapes out and stitching/gluing them on to each other, not tricky but different to me. I think they turned out okay though with only a few blips. I realised by cutting the felt you end up with this sort of felt dust that was really noticing on contrasting colours, so I had to use pieces of cello-tape to clean up. I also found out the thickness of felt I’m using (quite thin) means I can’t really achieve ‘sharp’ corners without them turning fluffy at the ends. As you can see on Jake’s muzzle (the yellow one) I have a weird fold where I sort of fell of his eye but had to keep stitching anyway. But hey, it’s a learning process!

All the nerds out there will know exactly who they are, but just in case you aren’t sure on the top left felt hoop we have ‘No Face’ from ‘Sprited Away’ and the right is ‘San’ from ‘Princess Mononoke’, both Studio Ghibli films. On the bottom left felt hoop we have; ‘Finn the Human’ and the right is ‘Jake the Dog’ from ‘Adventure Time’.

No Face, Princess Mononoke, Finn the Human and Jake the Dog Felt Hoops

We’ve never felt like this before…

So at the weekend, my boyfriend and I had some spare time together (usually we have stuff to do, or have to go here there and everywhere) and I thought it would be nice to make some Christmas Decorations. As he’s never felted before, I talked him through making a robin using a polystyrene ball as a pre-form, I didn’t quite want to throw him in at the deep-end yet. Before we go any further, I want you to guess which is mine and which is his, mwahahaha.

The large one on the right is his! He decided it would be a better idea to use the larger ball for his seeing as it wouldn’t be so fiddly. I think he did a fantastic job, huh? He certainly has his own style of felting which is great, his is more fluffy where as I often felt too hard/tightly so you end up seeing my needle marks. I think his robin has a fantastic expression too, so cute and fun! Here’s a picture of them nestled in our winter woodland themed Christmas Tree!