08 October 2016

Autumn Squash home decor tutorial

In today's tutorial I am sharing some Autumnal home decor items with you that I have sewn, yes you heard me right I sew a little too (don't get me wrong I wont be appearing on The Great British sewing Bee anytime soon, my sewing machine hates me and the feelings mutual)



Materials;
Cotton fabric in your chosen design
Small elastic band
Loose fill toy stuffing
Embroidery thread to co ordinate with fabric
Thin rope/thick twine
Cotton thread


Cut your fabric to measure 36cm x 24cm, fold in half and pin the outer edge,  Sew a line of stitches along the pinned outer edge of the fabric (creating a tube)




Hand sew a line of running stitch along the bottom edge of the fabric using a double thickness of cotton thread, this doesn’t have to be ultra tidy as we are going to gather the fabric.



With your needle still attached pull on the thread to gather the fabric as tightly as possible and secure with a couple of stitches.  Knot the thread and cut of the excess. Turn the fabric out so the pattern is facing outwards.



Fill the tube with loose fill toy stuffing until ¾ full, compact it down as you go so that you have a tight fill.


Add an elastic band just above the stuffing to close the fabric. Make sure this is secure and as central as possible.


Using a large needle and embroidery thread (6 strands) anchor the thread in the underside of the squash, you can hide the knotted end of the thread in one of the creases.


Bring the needle through the stalk of the squash just below the elastic band


Pull the thread through, the more you pull the bigger the indent will be. Take the thread back to the bottom of the squash and make a stitch and pull, you will now have 2 indents in the squash.


Repeat at least two more times.  You can add more indents depending on the look you want to achieve. You should now be able to tell that it looks like a squash. Secure the thread at the base of the stalk with a couple of stitches.



Creating the stalk

To create the stalk for your squash we need to bind the excess fabric by wrapping it with thin rope/thick twine.




Start by creating a large u shape, the end of the rope is on the left and the ball or rope is on the right. You need around 2 inches of rope above the fabric on the right hand side.



Using the ball of rope we now need to start wrapping the u shape we formed in the previous step, this needs to be a tight wrap.


When you get the base of the stalk you should still have a small loop showing at the bottom.  Cut the rope leaving a 3 inch tail.


Tuck the tail end into the loop as shown and then pull on the rope that is at the top of the stalk as this will pull the loop and tail into the steam and secure it.


If you have a small tail of rope left you can either cut it shorter or separate the treads a little to give the effect of the vine which a squash is cut from.



I then cut the excess roe from the top of the stalk to give a neater look.

You can experiment with a different size piece of fabric to give you a different shape and finished size.


Thank you for taking the time out to stop by, I hope you will give my Autumn Squash tutorial a go.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by, I appreciate your comments.