Just How Many Pumpkins CAN You Get From a Sweater?

Have you seen those cutie patootie sweater pumpkins rolling around Pinterest?  Well I have and I love 'em.  So I decided to give it a go.  Look at how cute they are:

I decided to go nuts with this sweater, chopping off any useable tube shaped area I could find.  This one sweater yielded SIX pumpkins; one big one from the main part of the sweater (armpit to the waist), two from each sleeve and a bonus one from the turtle neck area of the sweater.

I was pulling the final pieces of this project together while I had the TV on last night.  There was a new show on called Extreme Cheapskates and I had to laugh because I didn't pay a penny for anything to make these pumpkins.  Of course, I do it for the environment and not the pennies, but still I had to chuckle.

So, how did I do it?  I started with this fabulous no-sew tutorial from the Country Chic Cottage. I did make a couple of adjustments to suit my needs but here's how I spent ZERO dollars and ZERO cents:

-  Used an old sweater that was sitting in the back of my closet since who knows when
-  Used fishing string to "sew" with, I always have that laying around for drying my paper beads
-  Grabbed a few corks for the stems from the collection that my sister-in-law gave me 
-  Created leaves from corn husks that I actually dried from the summers BBQs
-  Finally tore apart those lumpy, bumpy pillows and reused the stuffing (you know I saved the pretty fabric for later use, too)

And there you have it - a cheap and easy yet super cute way to decorate the garden, porch or kitchen table for Halloween.

What a Fabulous Sewing Month

September was a fabulous month for sewing some upcycled goodness, wasn't it?  We had eight fabulous entries into two separate contests.  Thankfully, I didn't have to choose the winners because it was a tough one....well, two.  But in the end our two winners were:

Punky Trash Goddess from Annie

Fold 'n Go Tote from Melissa

All I have to say to my readers is that you are SO lucky that I didn't attempt to post my own projects for this month-long celebration of  sewing because, well, I just don't enjoy it.  Don't enjoy it so much that I can't even bring myself to hem a pair of curtains that separate my craft room space from the rest of the basement.  Not even after I tore the curtain rod hardware out of the wall TWICE because I stepped on all the extra fabric that was pooling up on the floor.

So last week, just as I was posting the last project, I got all tangled up in the fabric again.  I must have done a good job reinstalling the hardware last time because here's what happened this time:

So embarrassing!  But a great reminder to be grateful for all those who participated.