Fall Decor - 2/3 - The Idea Room

Fall Projects and Ideas Link-up Party

Want a super easy project that doesn’t need a fancy machine to make? I simply took 3 large pumpkins last year and painted my house number on them. Then I left them on my front porch for over a month. I am actually surprised they didn’t disappear one night due to some teenage pranksters and end up smashed in the street. But they didn’t! We were even able to use them to carve into Jack-o-lanterns right before Halloween last year.

Isn’t this a fun and simple idea? I saw this on a blog last year…somewhere, and wanted some on my porch. All you have to do it paint your numbers right onto the pumpkins! Easy!

It has been awhile since we did a link up party. I have had a few people ask if I do that anymore. Do you guys like link up parties? Anyways, I thought that maybe I could start doing them on Saturdays every once in a while if the majority of you are interested. Leave a comment and let me know! So here goes! It’s a linky party!

Thanks so much. I am excited to see what you have been up to!

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*Please remember to include my button below your post!
Thank You!

★Amy

September 25, 2010 · Filed under: Fall Decor Tagged with

Personalized Embroidered Hand Towels

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**If you haven’t entered the giveaway for the RecessionistaPary handbag, be sure to click here and enter!

Make a festive hand embroidered dish towel to celebrate the season…every season. Do you remember these handtowels I made for some friends last Christmas? Well,I just made a Thanksgiving version for my kitchen.

I typed out the word blessing and then traced it onto the bottom half (in the middle) of a flour sac hand towel with a pencil. I found mine at Ben Franklin for $1.50. I have also seen them at Wal-Mart, etc. I then cut out some material (the same material I used for my oven hand mitts) and applied the flowers as an applique to the towel under the word I had penciled on the towel

Then I placed an embroidery hoop around the letters and embroidered the word using a backstitch. I wanted the word to be thick, so I used 4 strands of the embroidery floss.

The fun thing would be to have one for every holiday and season. I had planned on making one for Halloween with the word Boo, but never got around to it. Since the flour sac towels are so large, I think I will just turn the towel around and add the Boo to the other side. Then you could use the same hand towel for both seasons. Just turn the towel to the right side for the season. These could not be simpler to make.

I have this hanging on the handle of my oven door and have tied a ribbon around it, I don’t have to hang it back up anytime the kids get near the towel (if you know what I mean). When the kids dry their hands on it, it actually stays in place!

If you are interested, I have posted the pattern I used along with patterns for Boo!, LOVE, and Gratitude. Click here for the downloadable version.

November 5, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts, Embroidery, Fall Decor, Gifts, Teacher Gifts, Thanksgiving Tagged with

Fabric Pumpkins

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I love to decorate for fall and one of my favorite items to pull out every year are my Fabric Pumpkins. Want to know how you can make a pumpkin too?

fabric-pumpkins

I saw a tutorial to make these on another blog last year and absolutely fell in love with them, but the link for Holly’s tutorial is no longer working. I have had a few people ask how to make these so here is my version of her original tutorial as I remember it.

I went to JoAnn’s and looked through the Red Tag and Home Decor fabrics and found a lot of cute fabrics in autumn colors. I bought about a 1/4 yard of each. You don’t need much.

Then I just experimented. For taller pumpkins I cut 2 peices of material that measured 12 x 14 inches, with the 14 inch length being the height. For the smaller, wider pumkins I used the same 12 x 14 rectangles but made the 12 inch side the height. Does that make sense. I even added a third size of 11 x 13. It is really up to you.

Then with what ever length you want at the top, fold each peice of material in half with the right sides together (or the side you want showing on the outside). Then sew a crescent shape on the folded edge like the picture. Do this for both peices of material.

Cut off the excess material near your seam.

Now take some coordinating material (I used material that I had made other pumpkins with) and make a stem. I did not sew this as a perfect square, since stems are sometimes curved. Mine measured roughly 2 1/2 w x 4 inches.

Turn your stem inside out and stuff with batting.

Take one of your pumpkin panels and lay it flat with the right side facing up and your sewn crescent up top. Pin your stuffed stem at the top middle with a little stem material poking above the pumpkin material like in the picture above.

Now sew around the entire pumpkin rounding the corners and leaving an opening along the bottom so you can turn it inside out and fill with batting. Trim your corners.

Turn inside out and fill with batting. Hand sew the bottom opening together.

**If your pumpkin has a difficult time standing up on its own, you may need to sew a small bean bag and place it in the bottom of your pumpkin before hand sewing it closed.

Now all you need to do is add a ribbon. I simply took a length of material and sewed the edges and made matching and coordinating ribbons. Or use some store bought ribbon.

Don’t they make you happy? I love FALL!

**update–one of my readers, Deanna, alerted me to the fact that Holly had recently reposted her tutorial which you can see here.