DIY Felt Pumpkins with Free Printable Pattern

I’ve been having fun dreaming up some seasonal crafty projects for Fall and Christmas this year. I hope I manage to pull them all off. I tend to have no end of ideas but a very limited amount of time to execute them! Thankfully, I was organized enough to create these fun DIY felt pumpkins, with a free printable pattern to share with you!

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I love Autumn. Where I live in Eastern Canada, the leaves all change colour and the air gets fresh and crisp. You feel like you can breathe again after the heaviness of summer. It’s time for back to school and the hope of new beginnings.

So it follows that I love fall-themed activities, food and decor too. Apple crisp and the first cup of hot chocolate after a cool walk or trip to the playground. An outing to a pumpkin patch, and this year Ezra has been begging to go to a corn maze.

I’m not usually one for seasonal decorating though. The older I get, the less I can tolerate the clutter. I can barely handle birthday decorations being left up after the day!

But I just re-potted a couple cacti into cute pots, and I paired them with these adorable DIY felt pumpkins for a little vignette on my tv stand. And I adore it. Plus the kiddos can knock the pumpkins down a million times and it won’t hurt them!

They’d be absolutely perfect on a fireplace mantle with some other seasonal decor items (like this friendly ghost banner). We’re so hoping to get our fireplace installed this winter. I can’t wait to have a mantle I can style!

These DIY felt pumpkins would be lovely in a Thanksgiving tablescape too, paired with some little acorns and fall leaf garland.

So let’s get crafting so you can get styling these cuties!

Gather Materials

You’ll need the following materials and supplies to make 1 large sized pumpkin.

Printed Pattern – Just click to download
Orange Felt – 12″x18″ sheet
Brown Felt – 3″x4.5″
Green Felt – 3″x3″
Green Fabric (optional) – 3″x3″
Matching Orange and Brown Embroidery Thread
Embroidery Scissors
Fabric Scissors
Sewing Needle
Tapestry Needle or Large Yarn Needle
HeatnBond (optional) – 3″x3″
Hot Glue Gun
Twine or Yarn
Polyfil or Wool Stuffing
Tweezers

This is my favourite shop for buying good quality wool blend felt. The colours I used are Pumpkin for the large pumpkin, Nutmeg for the stems and Moss for the leaves. I used Butternut for the smaller pumpkin but I can’t find a link for it.

For the large pumpkin, print the pattern at 100%. For the small pumpkin, print the pattern at 80%. And I suppose for a medium sized pumpkin you could print at 90%, although I haven’t personally tried it.

Cut out the pieces according to the instructions on the pattern, plus a piece of HeatnBond.

How to Make DIY Felt Pumpkins

As you may notice in the photos, on the larger pumpkin, I used a blanket stitch to sew the wedges together. On the smaller pumpkin I tried a running stitch and I much preferred it. But it’s up to you! The assembly process is exactly the same.

1. Use 2 strands of matching brown thread and a blanket stitch to sew around the stem on three sides. Gently stuff the stem and then sew it closed along the bottom.

2. Use 2 strands of matching orange thread and a running stitch (or blanket stitch) to sew two pieces of the pumpkin wedges together from top to bottom.

3. Repeat this process with 4 more seams, leaving the last seam open for now.

4. To prepare the leaf, use the heatnbond according to the manufacturer’s instructions to adhere the square of green felt and the green printed fabric. Then cut out the leaf through both layers.

Note: This step is optional, you can also just cut the leaf out of green felt if you don’t have any suitable fabric. I think the leaf would be really cute with a gingham fabric in black and white too!

Stuffing the Pumpkin

5. Start sewing the last seam, stop about 1/3 of the way up.

6. Now you can fill up the pumpkin with stuffing. Sew another 1/3 of the seam, and add more stuffing. Make sure to get lots of stuffing in to push out the seams and give the pumpkin it’s shape.

7. Finish sewing up the seam. You can still add more stuffing using tweezers through the holes left at the top and bottom of the pumpkin.

Add Twine Detailing

8. Thread a long length of twine or yarn onto a large-eyed needle like a tapestry or weaving needle. (The twine I used is similar to this one. I found a small spool at my local craft store.) Yarn or another type of string would work too. I’m a big fan of using the supplies you already have on hand!

9. Draw it through the middle of the pumpkin, right through the stuffing. Getting the twine through the stuffing may be challenging on the first pass, but it will be easier for the remaining stitches.

10. Wrap the twine around a wedge, down it’s middle, and pull the twine through the pumpkin center again. Pull the twine taut, so that it squishes the pumpkin a bit and makes it bulge into a cute rounded pumpkin shape.

Finishing the Bottom

11. Repeat wrapping the twine around the pumpkin on all six wedges.

12. Do one last pass back down the center of the pumpkin to bring the end of the twine back to where the starting bit of the twine is. Tie the ends together to secure.

13. Cover the opening by hot glueing a circle of brown felt over it.