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Posted on September 25, 2023December 5, 2023 by Wanda — Leave a comment

How To Make Fabric Pumpkin Bowl Filler Flatties

How to make flat fabric pumpkin bowl fillers

These fabric pumpkin bowl fillers are fun, easy, and inexpensive to make! I saw these done by the fabulous Melissa Marro of Vintage Bee Designs (You can watch her ~video here~. ) They’re toward the end, but it’s all worth the watch.) I did mine slightly differently from hers, working with my “less than” talent and what I had on hand.

You’ll need:

Fabric for pumpkins
Fabric or ribbon to tie around the stem
Thin quilt batting
Something to use for the stems such as sticks from the yard, some type of finial or, I used these wood sticks from The Dollar Tree
However, I can’t find them on Dollar Tree’s web site and didn’t see them the last time I was in the store. But Amazon has plenty of choices! Here is a link to craft wood stems suitable for pumpkin stems on Amazon. (Affiliate link)
A pattern for the pumpkin or maybe you can draw it free hand. I sure can’t. I found a pumpkin pattern from Silhouette Studio and cut it out of cardstock
Something to draw or trace your pattern. I use slivers of Dove soap on the fabric and a black marker on the batting.
Pinking shears
Glue – whatever kind you prefer
Sewing machine. Although, you could stitch by hand or glue the stitching lines, but the results won’t be the same

I’ll bet you have most of that on hand. I did have to go buy the sticks from The Dollar Tree. We live in a new subdivision that is devoid of trees. I’d have had to get some exercise and walk a good bit to find any sticks. Yeah, yeah. It wouldn’t have hurt me to walk. But I didn’t.

Find your pumpkin pattern. I made mine in two sizes, 5″ in diameter and 4″ in diameter. Since my freehand drawing stinks, I used a simple design I found in the Silhouette store, but you can also find one using a Google search and looking in Images. You can get as detailed as you feel comfortable, but for this project, you probably want to keep it really simple. I used this SVG file from Silhouette Studio. It seems to be called Pumpkin Basket.

If you’re familiar with SVG files, you know you can separate, or ungroup, every element, so I singled out one pumpkin and deleted the rest. Then I singled out the inside lines. This is what I had to work with:
Draw your outside shape on the fabric, then place the lines on top and trace them. If you use something like I did, you’ll have to finish the tops of the lines. If that makes sense.
Trace the outer lines of the pumpkin on some thin batting. I advise cutting a bit smaller than the pattern so you don’t have much, if any, batting showing after sewing the edges together.
Place the batting between the layers of fabric. You’ll have to kind of feel to see where your edges are and readjust. This does not have to be perfect! You’re not making an heirloom quilt here. It’s just seasonal bowl fillers.
It’s time to sew! Sew the outline first, leaving a hole at the top large enough to fit the stem in. Then sew the center lines. Again, don’t worry about perfection. I know, I know, it’s hard for some of us, but just relax and do it. I promise, when you get them out next year, you’ll wonder why you stressed about perfection.
Trim around the edges with pinking shears. Another option would be to fray the edges if your fabric is willing.
Poke that stem in and glue tight around the fabric edges. I didn’t get a picture of this, but I think you can figure it out. I did have to saw off my sticks a little. You really don’t want it to go too far into the center of the pumpkin. You want it just far enough to be secure. Maybe about 3/4″-1″ into the pumpkin. How much you leave sticking out the top is just a visual thing. You’ll have to be the judge here. And yet again, it’s not a science.
Rip strips of the bow fabric. Trim off any realllly long strings, but leave most of the strings that naturally happen. Or if you choose ribbon, cut it. I used about 22″ lengths ripped to about 1″ wide. I didn’t try to get the wrinkles or twists out. Just let them be natural. Tie them tightly around the stems. A simple shoe tie bow is fine. Or if you’re a talented bowmaker, use that talent! You might want to use a dab of glue on the tie. I skipped that.

And you’re done!

I hope you enjoy making these fabric flattie pumpkin bowl fillers. Another use would be to string them and make a fall garland.

A Personal Review and Comparison of Temu Silk Flowers

Have you been wondering if you should try Temu’s cheap silk flowers? Wondering how they compare to what you can find locally? Are their prices too good to be true? Well, I took the plunge. Threw caution to the wind and ordered some. Here is my review and comparison of the Temu silk flowers I bought.

But first, for the purpose of this post, let’s set aside any controversy or conspiracy theories about Temu (and, for that matter, Hobby Lobby, to which some of the flowers are compared). Okay? If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’re at least willing to give them a try. I’m neither endorsing nor trashing Temu. I’m not getting paid — which will probably become obvious further down the page. Still, please no comments bashing the company itself. You can bash the items you bought, but we’ll leave the political type controversy alone. Thank you.

I ordered from the app, but chose the items by shopping on my laptop. I liked the larger screen for decision making. But there was some kind of promotion, either free shipping or, maybe it was $25 off a $50 purchase, for using the app. Either way, I got both the $25 off $50 and the free shipping. (Yes, I ordered other things as well.) It only took about 8 days for the order to get here which surprised me. I was prepared for 2 weeks.

This post has a lot of pictures. I hope they load fast for you. The screenshots of the partial order pages do have links to the actual items I ordered. At this point, they are not affiliate links.

Let’s start with lamb’s ear picks. I couldln’t find this particular item on the site today.

They were a paler green than I was expecting. The quality was….. enh. Not horrible, not great. I’d give them a 5 out of 10. They were the only flowers of everything I ordered that were packed in a box.

They weren’t of great quality, but usable. See the piece on the right in the picture above? It was off one of the stems and when I tried to stick it back on, it was too loose to stay. I can still use a dab of glue, so not exactly a deal breaker. Also, on the picture below, you can see the stems weren’t wrapped well.

Comparing Temu’s lamb’s ear pick to the Hobby Lobby lamb’s ear pick, Hobby Lobby is the clear winner.

Next up is just some filler ferns.

They’re small and the ad shows that pretty clearly, but they’re decent. A couple of fronds were unattached. I’d rate them a 7 out of 10. I didn’t have any others on hand to compare to.

Moving on to a flower bunch.

Again, I didn’t have any others to compare to. This bunch was fairly small, but nicely full. It is pretty, the colors are nice. It has some plastic fillers along with the silk flowers, but the plastic is not ugly. The only things silk are the flowers and the large green leaves.

Here it is in a 7″ tall vase. I kinda think I’ll keep it in there.

I’m not unhappy with this. It gets an 8 out of 10.

While we’re doing flower bunches, let’s take a look at these.

The ad called them hydrangeas. 20 heads of them. Huh? They look a whole lot more like carnations or asters than hydrangeas. But I could see that in the ad photo, so I knew what I was getting.

The color I chose is in the same color family as the previous bunch/bush, but the flowers are smaller and it has a LOT more plastic fillers. You really need more than one to make a decent looking bouquet – which the ad photo did quite well. And maybe those plastic buds/thingies need cutting out.

Here it is in that same 7″ vase, but with two bunches together. Still not so very full. Rating? 6 out of 10.

Let’s do lavender now. These are plasticky and shed. Badly. I give them a 1 out of 10.

They compare closely to some I got at WalMart, only smaller. Much, much, much smaller.

And now, the main reason I ordered any flowers at all. Hydrangeas.

They’re so expensive at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s. I was hoping to find an inexpensive substitute. I’m not at all unhappy with these. The colors are very pretty and they’re probably more lifesize. At least compared to the ones on my bushes.

They came flattened out in a package, but were easy to just smush down with the palm of my hand to fluff them out.

Let’s see how they compare to Dollar Tree (which is what I was expecting) and Hobby Lobby:

I’d give the hydrangeas a 9 out of 10.

So, would I order again? Mayyyyybe. There are several reasons I might not.

One, I’m impatient. I’m not a big online buyer. I want things yesterday, even if it takes me 3 weeks to get in my car and go get something, I want it when I want it. So there’s that.
Another, I will always prefer to find something at a yard or estate sale if at all possible. There are a myriad of reasons for that
And… well…. I deleted the app. Juuuuust in case…. you know…. the conspiracy theories have a grain of truth in them. I mean, I don’t want them knowing I check my Etsy shop 10 times a day or that I scroll through Facebook, but rarely comment or that I look to see what other online resellers are selling or that I’m trying to figure out what to do with my patio or living room or kitchen, or that I’m desperate to figure out how to make a pair of pants that fit, or that I look on realtor.com for my dream home in my price range every single day….. You know. They don’t need to know all that! Ha!

I hope this has helped you make a decision to try or not Temu’s silk flowers.

Lamp Part and Pieces Upcycle

Today on the blog: Upcycling lamp parts in a way you might not have thought of.

You know how we find ugly or broken lamps or even just pieces of lamps at the yard sales, estate sales and thrift stores? Well, thrift stores probably throw out the badly broken ones, but sometimes pieces will show up. I’m always watching for these things, but it’s been a minute since I’ve actually upcycled one.

A few months ago I found these little cherubic guys at a sale. Ignore the work space, please and thank you!

I had no idea what their original use was. I thought it was a candle holder and that was what I intended to use it for. Recently, a friend in a Facebook group I’m a member of shared a floor lamp and there were these little guys at the base, holding a tall porcelain lamp! Mystery solved.

When I got home with them, I saw the broken spot, the hole at the base. I don’t know if it’s my old eyes, excitement – or desperation – to find something or just plain ol’ carelessness, but I miss things like this all the time. Do you?

Hmmmm….. What to do? Oh! I’ll use air dry clay to “repair” the hole and paint the whole thing!

But after I went to the trouble of repairing it, I had an epiphany. I realized that the top opening, the spot I thought would hold a candle, was too big for a candle. Remember, it was originally holding a porcelain lamp base/thingy. I really liked the antiqued look of the metal and didn’t much want to paint it and….. hey! I know! It needs reindeer moss! The moss could cover the repair – it could have covered the hole if I’d thought of it earlier and saved me that trouble. But what could they be holding if not a candle? Why, a ball of moss, of course! I found a small, styrofoam sphere in my stash, covered the parts that would be visible with reindeer moss, shoved it down into their hands, sat it on a bed of moss, and called it done.

But it still needed something – okay, okay. I knew I’d do this all along, but the picture above shows most clearly how the moss was attached – so I added a cloche and then called it done. (Why is it that the pictures like the one in the workspace and the one without the cloche are the better pictures, but the one that kinda counts, the one that should be Pinterest, Instagram and blog worthy is never a good/better picture?)

The cloche is from one of those cheap, plastic anniversary clocks, that have a glass dome, that we can sometimes find for a couple of bucks. I toss the clocks and keep the domes. I have several in my arsenal. I have kept the clock faces, but have never used them, so I don’t anymore.

As a side note, the iron base it’s sitting on is also a lamp part. It’s part of a hanging kerosene lamp. And sometime in my yard sale shopping, I happened to find a round piece of glass that fit perfectly. Friends, you have to hit the sales every weekend and go to every one as early as possible!

It’s all part of this vignette at the moment. The chest was from one of my favorite dealers at Angel’s Antique Mall in Opelika, Alabama, who is, devestatingly to me and many others I’m sure, closing her booth. Everything else is from yard and estate sales over the years. The candlesticks, I learned recently, are a Southern Living product. They and the cloche are the youngest things in the vignette. I might, but probably don’t, have as much as $250 total invested in everything here and that includes the $200 chest and the pictures that go on up the wall that you can’t see here.

So go out and keep an open mind with those parts and pieces if you don’t already!

You might want to check out some of my other fun lamp base transformations:
Curbside find – Floor lamp base turned pedestal
Don’t pass up those lamp bases! – Some Lamp Base Crafts

Reindeer Moss on Amazon (Affiliate link. It costs you nothing more and I’ll get a tiny stipend for my work. If you choose to use it, thanks!)

Pin it…..

Christmas Home Tour At the New House 2019

Here’s our Christmas home tour for 2019. Don’t know what to do with all your Christmas collections? Or maybe you think you have too much and need to feel better about yourself that you don’t have as much as what you’re about to see. Or maybe your collection puts mine to shame! Or maybe you just enjoy looking at how other people decorate for Christmas. Or you’re looking for something else to collect. Or… or…. whatever! Here’s our home at Christmas of 2019. I’ve focused only on the Christmas decorations because, well, the regular decor leaves a lot to be desired yet.

When you have this much, and yes, it is an addiction, and not even half of the collection is in the following pictures, you don’t just add a wreath here, a stocking there, some pine over there. It totally and completely takes over everything. It’s a lot of work, but oh so fun once it’s done. Then clean up time comes. Yuck.

Let’s start with the dining room. This is where all the glitz and glamor went.

Beaded floral picks, foil garland, ball arrangements, mercury glass candles…

I don’t seem to have got a picture of the tree toppers. And that light spot on the buffet top? I left a miniature pumpkin sitting too long one year. It looked fine on top, but the bottom…um… leaked. Let that be a warning to you. Watch those pumpkins!

Now, let’s see some Santas on the hearth: