Do you know how to crochet a chain? Then you can easily make these festive fall pumpkins for your home or to give as a gift. I was looking for an easy way to make a crochet pumpkin, but I kept thinking about having to stuff one and it just wasn’t the look I was going for this time around. So, I was browsing in JoAnn Fabric one day and saw these paper mache and styrofoam pumpkins and it hit me! I could use those as my base and add my crocheted yarn to them.
I hope you enjoy making one as much as I did! These are simple enough that kids can help out too!
Crochet Pumpkin Project Materials
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- Paper Mache Pumpkin or Styrofoam Pumpkin
- Yarn of choice – For the larger pumpkins, I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Spice and Wheat and for the smaller, I used Caron Simply Soft in Pumpkin
- Craft paint in similar color as yarn – I used Burnt Orange and Bleached Sand.
- Foam brushes
- Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
- Brown floral tape for stem
- Brown floral wire for stem
- Leaf accents – optional
- scissors
- crochet hook to match yarn size of choice
Crochet Pumpkin Project Instructions
Step 1 – Paint the base
Paint your styrofoam or paper mache pumpkin in a color to match your yarn. I used Burnt Orange to paint under my orange yarns. This just helps to hide any spots that might be missed with the yarn and to give it a deeper color. You can also paint the stem brown if you would like, but I didn’t find this necessary.
Step 2 – Crochet the groove chains and attach
I am calling these groove chains because they will go into the grooves of the pumpkin. You will start by working a simple chain of around 20 and then hold your chain up to the pumpkin to get an accurate measurement of how long the groove chains need to be. Hold the chain in the groove of the pumpkin and determine if you need it to be longer or shorter.
Once you have figured out the size of the groove chains, work one of those chains for each groove in the pumpkin. Cut the yarn at the end of each groove chain.
Now, trim the yarn from the ends of the chain and starting with one groove, make a line of glue down the side of one of the grooves and place your first chain onto the glue. Make sure that you have enough glue at the ends to hold the yarn to the top and bottom. Then move to the next groove and work your way around.
Step 3 – Crochet and attach the thicker pumpkin part chains
Okay, now that you have the grooves done, then work the thickest part of the pumpkin sections next. These will be a little longer and will attach between two grooves.
It is important to put in this middle chain first so you can then work the other chains smaller to fit in as you go.
Crochet chains in grooves and thickest parts
Step 4 – Crochet and attach the remaining chains
Now, you can crochet in the remaining chains. Work them one at a time.
I measured and then made the chain and cut the end, then attached it, then moved on to the next smaller chain section.
Once you are finished with all the chains, it is time to fill in any open spots and adjust before the glue is completely dry.
Step 5 – Fill in any holes
For this part, you can use any leftover yarn scraps and simply wedge them into any holes or gaps that you might have. These would be areas where a full chain would not fit. Just cut the yarn to length, then glue in place.
Step 6 – Complete the stem
I wrapped the stem in the brown floral tape and then used one piece of the floral wire to wrap around the stem and then at the end I had enough to twist into a spiral to mimic the stem and vines of a real pumpkin.
I chose to do three different pumpkins in different yarns and different sizes. They also sell different shapes and you could really get creative!
I dressed mine up with some sparkly leaves that I found in the fall items section of JoAnn Fabrics. There are so many ways to decorate or add other options to these cute pumpkins!
Share your finished pumpkins with us on Instagram – @stitchinprogress or in our Facebook group!
Love this project! Do the chains get glued to the bottom of the pumpkin or stop at the edge?
I brought mine to the bottom so that I wouldn’t have too much yarn fuzz around the base and so that they would stay in place better. They have held up really well so far.