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Sometimes inspiration comes to me in the most random places. My little girl and I were in the kitchen section of Target the other day looking for dish towels my mom wanted. My daughter picked up a pack of white dish cloths that were on the shelf in front of her (I was being brave and letting her walk instead of ride in the cart – she’s 2 1/2). At first I said, “Oh, we don’t need those.” but then quickly discovered I liked how they felt. My mind immediately jumped from “I could use these in the kitchen” to “I bet I could make pumpkins out of these.” Don’t know why – that’s just how my brain works I guess!

The dish clothes I used were a pack of 6 white 100% cotton cloths for about $4. I already had the other supplies in my stash, so it cost me less than a dollar per pumpkin to make! Pretty budget friendly!

I absolutely adore the look of these pumpkins – the soft, subtly fuzzy texture, the clean white combined with a natural twine and earthy brown cinnamon stick. I feel like they would fit right in with just about any decor.

One of the best parts, in my opinion, is that there is no sewing involved. If you’ve been around here a while you may know I’m not the biggest fan of sewing. I know how to and I”ll do it when necessary, but if I can get away with not sewing, even better! Also a plus – they only take about 5 minutes apiece to make! That’s a huge win in my book as a mom of two (soon three) little ones!

They are not difficult to make, but I’ve indicated some specific folds and have tried to provide clear photos and directions on how to perform those folds. You can certainly reference my Youtube video if that is helpful to you. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try to help!

Let’s get started on some easy dish cloth pumpkins!

Supplies

• White Dish Cloth – I used these from Target – these from Amazon look somewhat similar
• Fiber Fill Stuffing
• Natural Cotton Kitchen Twine
• Cinnamon Stick
• Hot Glue
• Scissors

Tutorial

1. Lay out the dish cloth “wrong side” up (the side with the seam) and cut off any tags.

2. Place a large ball of stuffing in the center of the dish cloth.

3. Choose one corner and fold it over slightly; secure with a bead of hot glue.

4. Take the “pointed” corner (opposite the folded corner) and fold it up and over the ball of stuffing.

5. Pull the opposite corner (the folded one) taughtly over the pointed corner and secure with a line of hot glue.

6. Take another pointed corner and fold the long sides of it inward, as pictured below, to make it narrower and hold the stuffing in.

7. Fold it up to the top middle of the ball.

8. Fold the sides of the opposite pointed corner the same way to make it narrower and hold the stuffing in.

9. Fold the tip of it over and secure with hot glue.

10. Fold that section up to the center of the ball and secure with hot glue.

11. Cut a long length of twine (enough to wrap around this ball 4 times, plus about 6 inches extra). Place it under the ball and bring the ends up to the middle, leaving one end about 6 inches long and the other end very long.

12. Tie in a double knot. (You should have two lengths of twine coming from this knot – one just a few inches and the other very long.)

13. Wrap the twine around the ball again, this time perpendicular to the first wrap. Bring it up to your starting point and slip the long length of twine under the knot.

14. Secure with a knot, using both the long and the short lengths of twine to tie it.

From the opposite side, it will now look like this:

15. Do the same as before, wrapping the twine around the ball, but this time catty-corner (on the diagonal). Slip under the knot and secure by tying.

Looks like this from the opposite side:

16. Now do the same to the opposite corner.

17. It should look like this. Cut off the excess twine once knotted.

It will look like this from the opposite side:

18. With the pumpkin turned “right side up” (knots on the bottom), find the center (in the middle of all the criss-crossed strings). Snip a very small slit in the fabric, being sure not to cut the twine.

19. Place the cinnamon stick into the slit, allowing the strings of twine to go around it on all sides. To secure, add hot glue to the bottom of the stick before inserting.

20. Take a length of twine and wrap it around the base of the cinnamon stick multiple times – however thick you’d like – leaving enough length on both ends to tie a bow.

21. Finish with a bow and trim ends to desired length.

All done!

While that probably seemed like a pretty lengthy tutorial, it’s only because I tried to really break it down step by step so there was [hopefully] no confusion. It actually goes really quickly once you know how to do it!

These pumpkins would look adorable all lined up on a shelf or hutch, tucked into a bowl as filler, on a table as part of a Fall tablescape…so many possibilities for them!

I hope you enjoyed this quick, easy, and inexpensive Fall DIY tutorial and that you’ve been inspired to whip up some dish cloth pumpkins of your own!

Blessings,
Melissa

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My little girl and I stopped in Dollar Tree the other day while my son was at school. We were in search of Fall craft supplies and Dollar Tree did not disappoint. There were all shapes, sizes, and colors of styrofoam pumpkins, plus a little scarecrow painting kit and a puzzle for my girl.

While the dollar store pumpkins are fun in their own way, I wanted to see if I could come up with some super easy ways to transform them into something a little more upscale. Each of these pumpkin transformations is very quick and uses supplies you may already have on hand (with Rub ‘n Buff maybe the exception).

An easy and subtle way to cozy up your home for Fall is to add various cozy textures throughout your decor – think fuzzy knits, warm metallics, and chunky earthenware. It was this concept that sparked the idea for 3 pumpkins with very different but cozy textures.

Let’s introduce these fun Fall pumpkins!

Pumpkin No. 1 – “The Fluffy”

Supplies:

1 Styrofoam Pumpkin
Fuzzy Yarn
Scissors
White School Glue
Foam Brush
Hot Glue Gun / Sticks
Cinnamon Stick

Instructions:

1. Remove tag and stem from pumpkin.
2. Use scissors to shred the fuzzy yarn into bits (I did this into a paper bowl). You’ll need a lot, but can always make more as you go.
3. Coat the pumpkin in school glue using the foam brush.
4. Cover the sticky pumpkin in yarn shreds until fully covered, adding more glue as needed to “bald spots.”
5. Once dry, hot glue on strips of yarn as the “ribs” of the pumpkin.
6. Carve a little slot in the top of the pumpkin and insert the cinnamon stick as the stem.

Pumpkin No. 2 – “The Shiny”

Supplies:

1 Styrofoam Pumpkin
Antique Gold Rub ‘n Buff
Paper Towel or Disposable Cloth

Instructions:

1. Apply a little of the Rub ‘n Buff to your paper towel or cloth. (A little goes a long way!)
2. Wipe/massage all over pumpkin. The more you buff the shinier it will be. This stuff is very smelly, so do this in a well ventilated area.
3. Let dry completely.

Pumpkin No. 3 – “The Chunky” (Concrete)

Supplies:

1 Styrofoam Pumpkin
Gray Acrylic Paint (or Black + White to make your own)
Black Acrylic Paint
Baking Soda
Foam Craft Brush
Small Paint Brush
Bowl for Mixing

Instructions:

1. Remove tag and stem from pumpkin.
2. Mix together gray paint (or black + white) and baking soda to make a thick paint. Coat the pumpkin in it.
3. Add more baking soda to the paint to make it extra lumpy and dab it all over the pumpkin, letting it be chunky in some areas.
4. Paint the stem black and reattach to the pumpkin once it’s dry.

TIP: For ease of painting, poke a long wooden skewer into the hole where the stem used to be and hold it that way. To let the pumpkin dry, poke the other end of the skewer into a cardboard box or prop it up in a vase or cup so the pumpkin can dry without touching the table!

There you have it – 3 quick and easy upscale pumpkins from dollar store styrofoam pumpkins!

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Hope you enjoyed these simple pumpkin DIYs! Alright, I’m off to put on a cardigan and pretend it’s cool outside…