Fabric Pumpkins

I recently made some pumpkins out of vintage fabric. I really love how they turned out. I did make some out of burlap (which isn't vintage) but I also made some out of old chenille bedspreads and a feed sack.

 

This one was made using a vintage chenille bedspread that is orange. I've kept it for years waiting for just the right project.

Remember this old feed sack (the one with the corn cob on it) that I bought for a dollar? You can read more about it here on THIS POST. Anyway, I cut it up and made some pumpkins out of it too.

These are fairly easy to make if you are interested in trying them. To make them you will need a football-shaped pattern/template. I drew one free-hand but you could probably create one on your computer using Word and then print it. My football is about 8" tall. The larger the football the bigger the pumpkin will be and the smaller the football the smaller the pumpkin will be.

After selecting your fabric, trace the pattern onto your material and cut out. Here I am tracing onto an old white chenille bedspread. For the seed sack pumpkin I used 8 pieces. For the chenille pumpkins I used about 5. Just play around with it to see how "fat" you want your pumpkin to be.

Once your pattern pieces are cut, you will sew them together. Sorry but I don't have a picture of this step. Basically you pin right sides together and sew two pieces together along one side. Keep adding pieces to your first two by pinning right sides together and sewing along one side of the football from tip to tip. As you add pieces you will see the pumpkin begin to take shape. When the last football is attached then sew the two sides of the pumpkin together. Leave about a 4" opening to turn the material right side out. Once it is right-side-out fill with stuffing. Here is a picture of all of my pumpkins stuffed and ready to be finished.

Before sewing shut I added a twig as the stem. Just coat the bottom of the twig with glue and insert into the center of the pumpkin down into the stuffing. Once the stem is dry and attached firmly, hand sew the opening shut. I then cut out a leaf from some other fabric and hand sewed that on as well. I added ribbon to each pumpkin to finish them off.

If you don't feel like making one of these yourself - or you like the material that I used - I am selling a few of these right here from my blog.To find them click on the link at the top of my page that says "Handmade for Sale" - or just click HERE.

I love how these turned out. I now have my own little pumpkin patch to enjoy year after year! I plan to be on the lookout at yard sales & thrift stores for vintage fabric to make more.

Thanks for stopping today!
KayteeJane

Polka Dot Pumpkin

This weekend our family carved pumpkins. Because "Sandy" is headed into Pennsylvania tonight we decided it would be best if we did our pumpkins a few days early. Trick or Treat has already been postponed from Wednesday to Saturday in our town as everyone anticipates the worst.

As you can see in this picture my husband is in on the act too. One of the things that I love about this man is that he is creative and he can build things. So, instead of using a knife or pumpkin carving tools for his pumpkin - he brought out a drill and Sawzall to do the job!

(Meanwhile my oldest daughter decided to wear her Batgirl costume - that she just purchased at Goodwill earlier in the day - to carve pumpkins.) Gotta love my family.

This actually is a much easier way to carve a pumpkin in my opinion. I've always struggled cutting them with a household knife - or with the little saws that come in those pumpkin carving kits.

"Curly" pumpkin guts are made from the drill. These would be cool to use some how. I could see a fake hand coming up from a bowl of these.

A Sawzall was used to cut a hole in the bottom for a candle. This particular pumpkin was so hard that only a power tool would do the job.

Here is the finished result. A Polka Dot Pumpkin! I love it!

Hope your Halloween is a fun one. May you stay safe from Sandy's path.

KayteeJane

Happy Birthday to Me

Last week was my birthday. I received this great book in the mail from a fellow Pyrex-lover. (Thanks Frannie!)

What a great gift! I can't wait to pour over the pictures of the different patterns. Here is just a sampling.

I do have some Pyrex on display in my kitchen for Fall - The Polka Dot bowl that my husband bought me for Valentine's day one year and the baker that I bought recently look so nice next to my leaves tray.

The orange mugs were also a birthday gift from my daughter Hannah. They are Anchor Hocking Fire King. Love their bright orange color. We saw these at a flea market a while back. I picked them up and then didn't buy them. She went back on her own and bought them for me. Isn't that sweet?

I love birthdays. It is so fun when your loved ones really "get you" and pick you very thoughtful gifts.

Have a great day!
Katie

More Autumn Decorations

As usual my pottery collection plays a big part in my holiday decorations (mostly because I would have to find a place to store it all if I didn't display it along with the seasonal stuff :). A corner-cupboard in my dining room displays some yellow pottery. I kept my yellow pottery out because I think it compliments the fall colors.

These pottery squirrels come out every autumn. The pink & gray ones are McCoy. I love these. I found the pink one at a church rummage sale for 10 cents. Actually my super hubby spotted it. Can you believe that luck? - 10 cents! The gray squirrel was bought at a yard sale. I paid a little more for it but I'm glad I did. Our town is known for it's gray squirrels every where. I love to put him out on display every fall. The salt & pepper shakers also came from a yard sale somewhere. A candy tin for Bowers Old Fashioned Peanut Brittle is in the back. I didn't even think about the connection between nuts and squirrels when I put that there...only later did I get it.

I like to add vintage paper ephemera to my displays too. I added some vintage game cards here and a moth ball tin - think Silence of the Lambs!

This Anchor Hocking milk glass apple always comes out in the fall as well along with some plastic apple coasters.

This awesome vintage Brach's Candy advertisement was given to me by my friend Cindy last year. She put it in a gold frame. I am displaying it on my Life Savers rack - also in my dining room.

And there is more to show - which I hope to do within the next few days. Thanks for looking!

KayteeJane

Pretties

Here are some new "pretties" that have made their way home to me.

We recently bought this awesome California pottery divided dish at a yard sale. Love the aqua color! I can see this holding candy or nuts, paper clips & office stuff or on a dresser holding hair clips or jewelry. I am having a love affair with anything aqua right now. Very retro but very much in style today.

 

At the same sale I found this little cloth bag in a box with vintage hankies. I paid 50 cents for it. It is going to be my new cell phone holder. I think I will stitch up some of these for gifts or to sell.

 

 

Recently I found this white pottery cornucopia at a thrift store in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They only charged me a dollar - with no tax. I love it for fall and am going to find some miniature pumpkins and ghords for inside. I am so ready for fall that I'm going to start decorating this weekend.

At another store in Gettysburg I bought this charm for a necklace. It is two-sided and I love what it says.

My thoughts exactly!

I bought this Grease jar at another yard sale this past weekend. I've been looking for one of these for years and was happy to finally find one.

I am actually going to use this! Don't judge - I know grease is a dirty word these days. I don't care. I can totally see this holding bacon grease to use in cooking.

This is on my front porch to welcome school back into session!  

Lastly, I bought this several weeks ago while at the community yard sales. It is black and green chippy paint!

The top

It may not show very well in the photo but the paint peeking out from underneath the black is a sage green.

I love eye candy - don't you?
Thanks for stopping today.

KayteeJane

Autumn Chex Mix

Serve this yummy snack at your Halloween or Harvest party - or make some just to snack on :).

Autumn Chex Mix

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups Corn Chex
4 1/2 cups Rice Chex
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 bags of candy corn
5 cups of bite-size pretzels
Non-stick cooking spray

Directions:
In a large bowl place cereals. In a seperate bowl melt butter in microwave. Add brown sugar & corn syrup to melted butter and stir. Add baking soda and stir until dissolved. Pour this over the cereal and stir until cereal is coated with butter/sugar mixture.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with foil and then spray with non-stick cooking spray. Pour cereal mixture onto sheet in a thin layer. Bake for 10 minutes or until brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and cool.

Once cereal is cool remove it from the baking tray and put it back into a large bowl. Some pieces may be stuck together. Just break these up with your hands. Add the pretzels and candy corn. Mix it up. Done!

I made some for party favors. I put the mix in canning jars, topped the jars with fabric and gave them away.

Enjoy!
KayteeJane

Halloween Decorations

I finally got my Halloween/Fall decorations out. I'm embarassed to admit this but it took me an entire day to put this stuff out. Shuffling items from one shelf to another to make room for holiday decorations can be time consuming! Makes me question the point of it all...but that subject is not one for a blog about collecting!

For Halloween this year I gathered from around the house several things that are black to use as the backdrop for my holiday items. Today I am showing off what is on my living room mantle. Look around your house and use items that you already have. Things liks old cameras, suit cases, old bottles, black shoes, typewriters, old letters, black & white photos and interesting books with spooky titles would make great decorations. 

Here is what I came up with. 

I have been collecting these dime store plastic pumpkins for a few years. I don't know how old they are but something about them makes me smile. The one with the hat was bought this past weekend at an auction along with some other junk in a box for $2.

To make the Jack O Lantern sign I spray painted 2 Scrabble Game letter holders black and then added Anagram & Scrabble letters to form the word. Keep an eye out at garage sales & rummage sales for old games. They have awesome graphics that look cool on display.

An old pair of children's shoes & a black typewriter add to the "black" theme.

This little owl wears a witches hat - both items found for pennies while junk hunting.

Old clocks set to Midnight!

I like how my collection of old cameras looks. I'm thinking this display needs some fake spider webs draped over it.

I found this cute children's book about crows at our library's book sale some time ago and thought it would look nice as part of a Halloween theme. When decorating for holidays use unexpected things - like a kid's book - as part of your display.

More to show tomorrow. It is great to be back to the blog!

KayteeJane