Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

How to make a simple crochet pillow cover

Pumpkin decorating ideas are not just about painting and carving pumpkins. You can decorate your home with pumpkins in so many other chic and sustainable ways! One of them is this easy crochet and embroidered pillow cover! This idea came to me through the talented Melanie Ham and her great video that I am sharing bellow! Like Melanie I am a big fan of crochet and embroidery so I really enjoyed making this pillow cover on a calm autumn afternoon. I find that hand stitching and making with yarn has such calming effect. When life gets particularly busy or overwhelming, it’s good to make an intentional space in your day to be creative or just…. well - be. I know it is an essential part of my routine now and it keeps my soul balanced and nurtured.

---

Don’t miss more autumn/Christmas recipes and creative crafts:

• Easy Orange Pumpkins
• DIY Painted Acorns Decoration
• Amazing Baked Pears Recipe
• Easy Pumpkin Cake - FREE Printable cake decorating stencil
• Pumpkin Puree
• DIY Reusable Fabric Pie Carrier
• FREE Illustrated Printable Weekly Planner
• Pumpkin Soup Recipe
• Beef Stew Recipe
• DIY Bookmarks for the Fall Season Read
• Fall Home Decor - FREE Printable Wall Art for Framing

If you’re not a fan of crochet

If you’re a crochet fan like me - brilliant! But what if you don’t particularly enjoy working with yarn or the crochet hook? For this project it really doesn’t matter. You can easily enjoy another favourite activity of mine and that is upcycling old clothes! I especially love to work with old bedding sheets (have you seen the onion dyed victorian style slip?) or men’s shirts (just three old men’s shirts can be turned into a comfy shirt style dress!) because they offer large pieces of fabric to work with. Upcycling old clothes is ideal for this DIY pumpkin pillow cover too! I’ve demonstrated it on the other panel of today’s pillow cover. One panel is a single/double crochet rectangle, the other is a piece of an old cardigan.

Pumpkin Decorating Ideas - Crochet Pillow Cover

You’ll need:

• some yarn suitable for crochet, approx. 100g (3.53 oz) and 220 m (241 yds)
• 3.5 mm crochet hook
• orange and green yarn (or embroidery thread) for the pumpkin design
• medium size embroidery needle
• a pair of scissors
• some loose cotton or polyester stuffing for the pillow filling
• an old cardigan or jumper if not planning to crochet

Instructions

If you’re planning to crochet the pillow cover panels, you will need a simple single crochet stitch to do that. The size of the pillow depends entirely on your preference. In the video bellow by Melanie you’ll see how to crochet the panel and how to add the pumpkins to it. To make the pumpkins you’ll need some basic embroidery stitches which are also demonstrated in the video.

Adjustments that I made

Firstly, the size of my pillow is bigger than the size of hers in the project. I like decorating my sofa with larger size pillows because it is quite big and a small cushion wouldn’t be very noticable. The other adjustment I made was the second pillow panel - the back. As mentioned above, one of the ways to avoid the crochet technique is to simply use an old cardigan or a sweater. I chose an old grey cardi and cut the back to the size of the front crochet panel. Before stitching them together I embroidered the pumpkins according to Melanie’s example. This brings me to the last adjustment - the embroidery thread. I used that instead because it gives a more delicate design. However, if you’d like the pumpkins to be more chunky and prominent, use yarn instead!