$3 Thursday

For my second $3 Thursday I thought I would feature a fall themed craft.

I made this pumpkin to put on display this fall.

I made it with these items.

An orange sweatshirt,

fiberfill, a suede scrap

fabric glue and some ribbon.

Monday I went searching for 99 cent items at Savers and found this orange sweatshirt.

On Monday all the orange tagged items were 99 cents so I went looking for orange items with an orange tag.

I lucked out and found a few items but liked this one the best.

It was the perfect shade for a rustic pumpkin.

I imagined a tall narrow pumpkin and started by cutting off a sleeve.

I thought it was close enough to the basic shape I was imagining.

I turned the sleeve inside out and sewed up the bottom.

Then I sewed a box corner on the bottom to make a bottom for the pumpkin.

Don't mind the blue thread. 

I knew it wouldn't show on the finished pumpkin so I used what was in my machine.  :) 

I did trim the corners after they were sewed to remove some of the bulk.

Next turn the sleeve right side out.

Stuff with fiberfill.

I had to really play around with it to make it as smooth as possible.

I didn't want a lumpy pumpkin.....

Next I gathered some brown suede scraps to make the face on my jack-o-lantern pumpkin.

I had a collar from a suede jacket that I was able to use.

I had thought of painting a face on the fabric, I think I might try that on another one.

The corners of the collar made the prefect eyes.

I liked the stitching details of the collar.

Now to decide on the mouth.

Look one - not quite the look I wanted.

Look two - better but still not it.

Look three - nope, too scary.

Look four - I think this is it.  A bit quirky, I like it.

Now to attach the suede to the fabric I used some fabric glue.

Glob, yep, that's my technical term, some glue on the back of the suede.

I smeared it around with my finger to cover it completely.

This is the final look, I added a nose and switched one of the eyes upside down.

Next, I tied some ribbon around the cuff to secure it.

I left some of the ribbon trailing down.

I cut a piece of the jacket collar in a rectangle to size around the cuff.

I applied glue to the suede and wrapped it around the cuff.

I secured the cuff with a paperclip and left it overnight for the glue to dry.

The finished pumpkin on a shelf. 

I think it is a bit too big for this shelf.

Ah, looks better here.

I think I'll make a few more to display as well.

I think I can make quite a few pumpkins from one sweatshirt.  I'm sure I'll have a whole family of pumpkins by the time I'm finishing my Fall/Halloween displays around the house.

Total cost:   $.99 plus some basic supplies I had on hand.

Recycled sweatshirt - $.99

Fiberfill - Garage sale freebie

Suede -  scraps on hand

Fabric glue - on hand

Ribbon -  on hand

As you can see I had most of the items on hand so the cost for this project was only the sweatshirt.

I know the fiberfill would cost more than my $3 project limit but divided by all the pumpkins it would come in well below $3 per pumpkin.

The face on the pumpkin could be painted, felt or what ever fabric scraps you have laying around.

I would love to hear of your inexpensive fall crafts.

June

Linking to:

Tutorial Tuesday with Hope Studios

Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family

Lucky Link Tuesday at Lucky Star lane

Trendy Treehouse Creative Share

Make it Yours at My Backyard Eden

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts

Just because I love it at Tools are for Women Too

Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous 

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the porch