Monday, October 20, 2014

Sweet And Chic Embellished Sweater Pumpkins

 Vintage Victorian Inspired Embellished Sweater Pumpkin


Don't you just love to recycle things?  I do too! With ideas
of my own or being inspired by other things people do. I
have pumpkins on the brain and I decided this is the time
to finally get done what I have been meaning to do in
forever. I made a bunch of them out of several different
type of materials and fabrics, but I wanted to take it up
a notch and make some dainty special ones. And, I knew
just the stuff to make them with.

I have a box of sweaters I had been saving that, let's
just say had shrunk in size on me hoping that one day
they might shrink up to the size I'm wearing now! Well,
that hasn't happened in two years so, I decided they
would make pretty pumpkins. I finally got inspired
to create with them, although it killed me to cut them
up. They were all in really good shape so what am
I thinking!

This WAS a beautiful cashmere sweater in a taupe
color...a good fall color and so soft, so this was my
first pick to work with.

My hubby starting choking when he saw me taking
the scissors to this one asking "what the heck are
you doing!?" I said, "Making a sweater pumpkin!"
LoL! Then I got that look...you know the one that
if there were words printed on his face would say,
"have you lost your ever loving mind again woman!"
He seems to say that quite often to me lately.
Then he left the room saying, "I can't watch this
slaughter!"

I have to admit, I had to turn my head while I put
the first cut into it cringing at the same time! Gosh
that was hard to do! Oh well can't turn back now!

I had some sweet vintage crocheted lace, a bit stained
up but I liked it just the way it was, and knew I wanted
to use it along with something sparkley. I had victorian
on my mind but that was about it on where it was going
to go from there.


I got the pumpkin made and added the lace. I decided
I wanted to cover the twine that was wrapped around
the top of the sweater to create the stem, so I cut a piece
of the cuff off the sweater sleeve and wrapped it around
the stem, and rolled over the top of it just a little bit. I
wanted to cover the top of the stem so I took a strand
of rhinestones and did a wrap around and ended by
putting a larger square rhinestone right in the middle.
It doesn't show up well in the pictures. Then I wrapped
some more of the rhinestone strand just under where
I rolled the sweater down to on the top of the stem.
Next I clipped four little rhinestones off the chain
of a necklace I had used when making my
"Pink Parfait Chenille Pumpkins"and set them each
in the centers of the flowers in the crocheted lace. It
still needed something. On that same necklace there
was a silver teardrop that I loved that was next to the
clasp, so I took the rest of the silver chain I had left over
from that necklace and redid it to create the little necklace
here on this pumpkin. That was just what it needed! Now
I was satisfied. My four-o-clock in the morning creation.
I get those alot. Might be why I drag all day!
Her name is "Victoria" of course!



I really loved her when she was all done and even
my hubby was amazed how sweet it turn out too!

See I'm not out of my mind yet! Next up.....my

Dainty Creamy White Pearly Feathered and
Vintage Lace Sweater Pumpkin

  
Now I'm really getting inspired! Next I take another
sweater that I loved in a creamy off white. Again I
wanted to use another lace doilie I had that was a bit
whiter than the sweater. I love different shades of white
together. I wanted to do something with pearls on this
one. I had this idea and set out to do it, but it came out
far different from what I had planned! I had planned
on sewing little pearls throughout the entire pumpkin,
but once I got the pumpkin itself made, I was trying to
figure out how I wanted the stem on this one. Just
fiddleing around, I wrapped the pearls around the stem
and that was it! I finished the top off that way too with
one single pearl set on top of the wrap in the middle. I
added my lace....put some single pearls in places around
the lace and then decided to add some feathers. I loved
it but it needed something for sparkle. I just can't get
away from sparkle! In my stash I found this oval
rhinestone that already had some feathers of another
kind glued to it from when I made lace crowns last
year. I set it on the pumpkin and that was it! Now I
was happy with her. When looking at the finished
pumpkin I envisioned wedding...so her name became
"Purity"....well we are supposed to be pure at that time.




I have lots more left of this sweater and the taupe one to
create more pumpkins another day. The inspiration to them
will come when another vision gets in my head. Could be
soon or next year. I got some ideas swimming around in
my brain for the white sweater with Christmas in mind.
We'll see if those pan out!

Next is my......

Creamy Sweet & Chic Sweater Pumpkins With Bling


The last sweater I wanted to use was more of a bulky
type knit sweater in a soft cream color. Cream is a great
fall color too, don't you think?

I got six pumpkins out of one sweater with no
sewing involved. The largest is from the lower
body of the sweater, all the small ones are from
the sleeves of the sweater. I still have the chest part
of the sweater left to make one more if I sew the
sides together to create a tube, or use the front and
back separately by cutting large circles and laying
some pillow stuffing in the middle. Then gather up
the edges to tie off with a rubber band or tie it off
with twine, and continue wrapping the gathered
edges with the twine to create the stem. To get the
sculptured look I can take six strands of the twine
and starting at the bottom underneath the pumpkin,
lay them out evenly spaced with the center of each
strand centered under the pumpkin, take a hold of
both ends, pull it up the sides tightly, then wrap
the ends of the twine around the stem. Once done
with all the strands you get the sculptured look.
Glue the ends in place and trim off the sweater
edges to get the flat look at the top. Then I would
have eight pumpkins...I'll do that later, I'm finally
getting pumpkined out!
I have a pack of pumpkins coming on my next post
made of chenilles, drop cloth, gingham, and checks
to share. I have been on pumpkin overload this year!
It's all the pumpkins I had planned on making for the
last couple years and never got around to it. Nothing
like doing them all in three weeks, but I'm finally getting
them done and out of my system....maybe lol.
I got a pretty good amount of  pumpkins out of one
sweater though....now what to do with all these pumpkins!


I cut leaf shapes out of painters drop cloth for the leaves.
I creased them down the middle, pinched the bottoms
together and then just stuck them under the twine strip
that creates the sculptured look around the sides.




The largest of the pumpkins is made from the bottom
half of the body of the sweater. Below all the little
pumpkins made with the sleeves of the sweater and
each are embellished with different rhinestone jewels.





My two favorites.....The little bitty....this was wrapped
in yarn then I decided to go with twine on the rest. I
think I liked the twine best. It looks rustic but dainty.

Maybe I'll redo her so she doesn't look like the odd man out.


And the.....itty bitty!

and lastly the chenille princess pumpkins my
granddaughter and I did posted here. These aren't
made from sweaters, but they are part of the "Up A
Notch" pumpkins with being dazzled and jeweled
and just sweeter as far as pumpkins go!

The Pink Princess Parfait Collection



Well that's it on my fancy smacy embellished pumpkin
kick. Not sure that I am done, but for now yes. I think
that's enough for one day!

Thank you for sharing your time here today!

TaTa For Now!


With a grateful heart and sincere appreciation,
I would like to thank the following for featuring
my embellished pumpkins. You are so kind!

  
Thank you so much!

Sharing here:

7 comments:

  1. 1 word! STUNNING! Thanks for sharing: http://felting.craftgossip.com/2014/10/20/sweet-and-chic-embellished-sweater-pumpkins/

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    1. Thank you miss Linda and thank you so much for the feature on your site! You made my day! :) Hugs!

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing your gorgeous pumpkins. They are stunning for sure. I was wondering/hoping that you would share a tutorial on how you made them. Pretty please, with some bling on the side. Thank you

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    1. Thank you Janet! I did on the post describe how I did them, well not in detail. When I get some time I'll try to do photo's more of the process. But I'll try to explain more here for you. Take a sweater and I started with the sleeves first. Cut the sleeve off at the arm pit straight across. To get two out of one sleeve, cut the sleeve in half. Turn the sleeve inside out, and take one end, gather it together and tie it off with twine or use a rubber band tightly. Then turn the sleeve right side out and fill with fiberfill (pillow stuffing). Once that is done, gather the top and tie it off with your twine or rubber band. You then wrap the top that is gathered with twine or yarn to create the stem all the way to the top of it and use a dab of glue to hold it in place and cut any excess off. You can trim the top of the stem with sissors for the flat look or just leave as is. If you want your pumpkin to have a sculptured look, take five or six long strands of twine, depending on how many poofs I guess you could call it you want around the sides of your pumpkin. Lay those out evenly apart with the center of each strand under the center of the bottom of the pumpkin. Take the ends of one strand and pull it up the sides of the pumpkin, then do the same with the remaining strands pulling them until you have the indent you want in the sides of your pumpkin. Then wrap the strands around the gathered part that will be the stem, clip off the excess and glue the ends in place. You can also tie around your gathered top with the twine you pulled up with a rubber band or tie it all off with a short piece of twine, to hold everything in place. Then take more twine to wrap up the entire stem. I have done this so many times that I just hold it all and wrap tightly around the bottom of the stem and then on up to the top of the stem. What ever is easier for you to do. And your done. When finished and you look at the bottom center you will see the criss cross of the twine on the bottom but up the sides depending on how tightly you pulled the strands up you will barely see the twine or not at all. Hope that helps. You can always do a google search also on no sew pumpkins....there are a ton of tutorials out there showing a few different ways to create them. Then if you want to decorate them, you just go with what ever you like. I always most always love to add some bling. And these here I used lace and feathers to some, or cut leaves of some fabric to add and even moss around the top too. It's just all on what you like or are inspired by. Thanks again for the comment and for the visit. If you have any questions I can help with just let me know. Oh one more thing.....I use to do this when I first started.....you can use a dab of glue on the bottom and then lay your strands out in place over the glue, and that will help hold the strands on while you are pulling them up the sides to keep them from slipping. Hope that helps. Have a great weekend!

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  3. You are amazing Debi! I love every single one of them. Thanks for posting. :) Xoxoxo

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    1. Awwww thank you Tracy...you are so sweet! And your welcome! :) Hugs!

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  4. Wow, your pumpkins are stunning and beautiful! Congrats on the feature over at Oh My Heartsie Girl!

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Thank you so much for the visit and your kind and lovely comments! Please come back and visit again! Have a blessed day!