While I’m typing this the weather outside here in central Ohio is in the high 90′s with what feels like 100% humidity.  Not that I want to wish the warm days away but I’m definitely ready for a 20 degree drop and some cool nights.  Sunday’s forecast is for a high of 71, yay!!

I’m not usually this far ahead of schedule for any holiday, but especially Halloween.  After last weeks fall leaves inspired pillows  and seeing pumpkins popping up everywhere I felt the urge to get started.  Finding an orange turtleneck sweater at the thrift store (for 75 cents) while I was looking for a lamp shade was all the help I needed.

Everything else I used I had on hand….glue gun, batting scraps, fabric scraps, newspaper and buttons.

I started by cutting the “neck” off and trying to sew the bottom closed with embroidery floss.  Can’t say I had a lot of luck.  I still had a gaping hole after breaking the floss, not once, but twice.  I gave up on that real quick.  Time to pull out my trusty glue gun.  Since I had already stuffed some wadded up newspaper wrapped with some scrap batting inside it was very easy to just fold the edges in on a circle of glue.  Think wrapping a package.  The top I just gathered up and tied off with some raffia.  Then I hot glued on a face with buttons.

The second and third ones got a little easier.  I used the sleeves and again stuffed first then glued the bottom.  Put a blob of glue right on the newspaper/batting and folded the sides in like wrapping a package.  For the stems I used scrap fabric to make small tubes by gluing the sides and bottoms together, flipped right side out,  filled with a small roll of scrap batting and glued the bottom shut.  Then just glued the stem on the pumpkin.

Jack #2

Jack #3

On the third one I used a pair of clip-on earrings for his eyes.  I just twisted off the clips with a pair of needle nose pliers.  The nose is a wood button and the mouth is a wooden rosette.  I gave the rosette a little dab of copper craft paint to tone it down a little since it was lighter than I wanted it to be.

Trio of Sweater Jack-o-Lanterns

These probably won’t be out on display for a little while….like the first of October.  So for once I’m ahead of the game.  Yay me!!

What have you made from scrapes lately?  And our tip of the day is check your thrift store often.  You never know what you will find.  All of my batting was picked up at Goodwill for about $1.99.

Please take a minute to scroll down and leave a comment.  I would love to know what you think.  Did this inspire you?  Will you use this as a jumping off point for your own project? Or just to say Hi I was here.  Comments are the only way to let me know what you are thinking.  If you enjoyed, please share with your friends or followers.  Thanks =)