The coziest season of all is upon us! What better way to celebrate than with these cute little DIY sweater pumpkins?!
While I love all of the festive occasions that each year brings, my favorite season is fall. I think that’s why I make soooo many fall DIY projects and crafts (lookin at u fall farmhouse book stack and dollar store makeover pumpkins!).
Here’s the thing, though: I’m not a sewer. Not like Ninja Turtle-style sewer. I mean I don’t know how to sew. It’s something I’d like to learn soon, but I kind of wish I would’ve taken some time to learn before having my son :lol:.
Since I don’t have the whole sewing thing down, I lovveeee a great no-sew craft. They usually turn out to be my favorites. Between my no-sew sock gnomes and these DIY sweater pumpkins, I don’t know which is cuter!
Not only are my DIY sweater pumpkins adorable, but they also have helped me purge my wardrobe a bit. I am a hoarder of thick cozy sweaters, and I really hate getting rid of things (it’s an issue for real :lol:). I feel like my old worn out cozy sweaters are serving a new, fun purpose!
With a few materials and a little time, you can create these DIY sweater pumpkins to get your home all cozy for fall. One sweater can make at least 5 pumpkins (4 smaller and 1 larger), so you can have one for every room 🙂
Let’s get started with these DIY sweater pumpkins!
1. Gather your supplies
For your DIY sweater pumpkins, you’ll need:
- An old sweater that you’re ready to part with (make sure the knit is tight enough so that the beans won’t fall out!)
- 2-3 rubber bands
- Twine
- Scissors
- Dried black beans (other dried beans could also work)
- Fiber fill (optional for small pumpkins, but necessary for larger pumpkins)
- Hot glue gun & glue
2. Cut the sweater sleeve
You’ll want to cut the sleeve however large you want the pumpkin to be–the further up the sleeve you cut, the larger your pumpkin will be.
I did some experimenting with different sizes of pumpkins and all of them turned out freaking adorable, so you can’t go wrong with this part!
If you’re trying to make one of the larger DIY sweater pumpkins, you will need to cut off the sleeves of your sweater and use the middle part of the sweater instead of the sleeve. The rest of the steps will be pretty much the same, except obviously you’ll need a lot more fiber fill to get it to the fluffiness you desire!
Here’s how my bigger sweater pumpkin turned out:
3. Turn the sleeve inside out
We need to turn the cut off part of the sleeve inside out for this next step.
4. Tie one end with a rubber band
Tie the rubber band tightly–we don’t want any beans falling out!
If you’re making one of the large DIY sweater pumpkins, this part got a little trickier for me. I wanted to tie the rubber band tight, but I ended up breaking like 8 rubber bands trying to achieve this!! Eventually I realized I needed to just tie it as tight as possible without going overboard.
Turns out it didn’t make too much of a difference how tight the rubber band was–nothing fell out at all in the end!
5. Turn the sweater sleeve inside out again
Now the sweater should be back the way it started–technically not inside out anymore! This creates the little sack we need in order to fill up our pumpkins.
6. Sit the sleeve up
The side where we tied the rubber band will now be the bottom of the pumpkin.
If you’re making a large pumpkin, you probably won’t be able to sit it up as nicely as the smaller pumpkins. My large pumpkin had some very floppy sides flailing all over the place at this point. That’s okay though, just get the pumpkin in a good position to start filling it up.
Get ready to open your bag of beans!
7. Fill the sleeve
You’ll want to fill it about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way full if you’re just using beans.
I created some DIY sweater pumpkins with only beans and some with a tiny bit of beans and the rest filled with fiber fill. The fiber fill pumpkins ended up looking a little bigger and fluffier, so it really depends on the look you’re going for!
If you’re making the large version of the sweater pumpkin, you’ll definitely need the fiber fill. You can use some beans to weigh down your pumpkin, then fill it to your liking with fiber fill.
8. Tie a rubber band to close the pumpkin
We’ll cover the rubber band up with twine for the pumpkin’s stem!
At this point you may want to cut off some of the excess material if you have a super chunky sweater you’re using. I cut mine diagonally a bit so that my stem would look skinnier towards the top.
You can also tie one or two other rubber bands at the top of the stem to make it a little skinnier.
If you’re making the large version of this sweater pumpkin, you’ll definitely want to cut off excess material so your stem will be a bit skinnier.
9. Tie your twine at the base of the stem and start wrapping
Tie the twine in a knot at the base of the stem (where your first rubber band is). Start tightly wrapping the twine around the stem, trying to cover all of the sweater.
This was the trickiest part of the project for me. If you have too much extra material in your stem area you might have to wrap the twine pretty tight!
10. Hot glue the twine and cut any excess twine
Use some hot glue to glue down the end of the twine to the stem so that your wrapping can’t come undone. I added a little extra hot glue to any places where it looked like the twine might be a little too loose.
Admire your adorable DIY sweater pumpkins!
All done!
Look how cute!! These DIY sweater pumpkins are the perfect DIY fall decor craft for your home.
Here are some of my different final products:
I love how cozy all of these turned out. I really think it all has to do with the sweater you use. Different sweaters can give these DIY sweater pumpkins completely different vibes.
How did your DIY sweater pumpkins turn out?? Let me know in the comments below!
