I bought this paper mache pumpkin last year in the sale (not that it was very expensive to begin with, but every little helps! 🙂 ). I wasn’t quite sure exactly what I would be doing with it so it’s been patiently waiting for autumn to come round. I’ve done plenty of decoupage projects before, but one thing I hadn’t tried yet was doing a decoupage project with fabric. Until now! I still had some fabric left over from the toilet roll pumpkins we made (if you’ve not seen the post, you can check it out here – they’re super-cute and so simple to make!)
What you need for your fabric covered pumpkin
- A paper mache pumpkin
- Some fabric of your choice – I used a polka dot orange fabric similar to this one
- Mod Podge
- A brush
- Some string
- Raffia
- Ribbon of your choice, I used green and black for this one.
- Hot glue
I cut the fabric into a load of strips, long enough to run from the top to the bottom. I tried 2 different techniques, just to see which one would suit me best. The first is by soaking the entire piece of fabric in Mod Podge and putting it onto the pumpkin (first pic). I actually preferred the second technique which was putting mod podge onto the pumpkin direct, adding the fabric strip and then just pushing it carefully onto the pumpkin (pic 2 and 3). Try to get as many of the bubbles out to get a smooth finish. Next, cover the fabric with more Mod Podge to “set” it. It’s a pretty messy job and I washed my hands a few times in between because they got caked in glue!!
Don’t judge your project until it’s finished!
Once I had covered the whole pumpkin and it had dried, to be honest .. it looked a mess!! I couldn’t help but think that I was so pleased I didn’t try this project on a Live as you would have all left me!! 😉 BUT, .. like any craft project ..NEVER judge it until it’s finished!!
Anyway, I tidied up some of the fabric at the top and the bottom by getting the hot glue gun and sticking down some of the loose ends. I didn’t take pics of this but it speaks for itself.
Although it looked a bit tidier, it definitely needed something else. So, I took some string and snipped off enough lengths to hot glue in between the segments of the pumpkin as on the picture. I did this for the whole of the pumpkin. Just to give it some more detail.
Please excuse the dark pictures – I finished this off in the evening and the lighting in our office was not very picture friendly!
Anyway, last but not least it needed something on top to cover the stem. So I took to one of my fave crafting materials .. raffia!! A girl can never have enough raffia .. or glitter, but that’s another story. I cut off some raffia and made 2 bundles (see pic). I hot glued one of the bundles on either side of the stem. And finally I made a messy bow. You can check out how exactly to make a messy bow in this post which also has a video showing you exactly what to do. I added a lot of hot glue on top of the stem and just stuck that baby down. If the raffia is too long, you can give your pumpkin a bit of a haircut.
Two raffia bundles for the top 
Just hot glue those babies down!
The final result
And there you have it! Just a bit of a fun project that you can add to a tray or a window sill. Or an autumn fireplace in our case 🙂
Do you like the farmhouse style bead garland? It’s such an easy project to make yourself – you can check out how to make your own here.
Honestly, there were moments during this project where I wondered what it would turn out like. Especially when I had more glue on myself than the pumpkin!! BUT I LOOOVE how funky and colourful it’s turned out!!
What do you think? Thumbs up or down for this funky hairdo pumpkin?
Don’t forget to pin for later!!
Some of the links in this post are affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if you decide to use my links to purchase something at absolutely no extra cost to you!). This will allow me to continue to share great ideas and projects with you, so I am very grateful for your support!
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