13th October 2018
There’s nothing like crafting on an Autumn day, when it’s cold outside, we pop the fire on, warm up a hot chocolate and get crafting!
William Morris Compton is a great fabric to use at this time of the year, the colours work so beautifully against an Autumn backdrop and the almost burnt orange colour within the design has got to elevate Compton to one of our favourite William Morris designs. This is a really easy project but super effective.
All you will need is a cardboard pumpkin, PVA glue, a small to medium size brush and your chosen fabric. We used around 7m of bias binding. The bias minding we sell by the metre, it’s perfect for projects like this where you want to have small, easy to work with thin pieces of fabric.
About half a metre of fabric would work just as well, it’s totally up to you and what you’d prefer to work with. The William Morris Compton is also great because it really does compliment the tones of the candle within. The flickering of the candle within gives a spooky element to the pumpkin; the candle is battery operated of course, we got ours on Amazon. The benefit of the crafty pumpkin, not only is that it’s a beautifully arty pumpkin and a work of art within the design but also, you can make it at any time during October and you won’t see it go a little mouldy and you can use it year after year!
To begin, cut your bias binding into strips, around 4-5cm using fabric scissors. Then, turn them over and cover with PVA glue, using your paintbrush, making sure you’ve painted the glue all the way to the edges. Stick to the pumpkin and repeat until it’s covered. Make sure to be careful round the details; the stalk of the pumpkin, the back opening where you pop the candle though and around the eyes, nose and mouth; you’ll be able to see if you’ve not quite covered into them when the lights flickering inside. We also love how the layers of fabric all overlap, it’s really effective how it’s all layered together, you might have to do a few layers to get it to look like ours.
We took our Compton pumpkin to the pumpkin patch for a little photoshoot; we love to have our faux pumpkin alongside a real one. That’s because we love to decorate the steps with different pumpkins – with one on each step, the effect when they’re all lit up with candles inside is beautiful.
If you plan to make a pumpkin similar to ours, make sure to show us on social media. Remember that if you do create anything from our fabric, to email photos to us and we will send you a 20% discount code off your next order on our website. Email photos to: [email protected] – we can’t wait to see what you’ve made!
Posted in William Morris by Laura