Today’s crochet pumpkin tutorial is a totally customizable project that will end up being 100% unique.
In the fall season, many crafters are still looking for easy and unique crochet pumpkin tutorials, especially for Halloween!
Let’s face it-creating these stitched squashes during the fall season never gets old. You simply cannot have too many handmade pumpkins!
So, today’s post features a free video tutorial and pattern for a patchwork crochet pumpkin. To make it, you can use gauge swatches that you already have from past projects, or you may choose to whip up squares in any size, color, or stitch especially for this project.
The process is easy to follow and the result is a customized pumpkin that shows your own personality!
Let’s get started so you can be admiring your own unique pumpkin right away.
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About This Project
As you’ll see, the Patchwork crochet pumpkin is very versatile. If you want handmade decor for yourself or gifting, then this is a wonderful low-pressure project. In fact, it can be made using any size yarn and hook, so hopefully you won’t HAVE to buy any yarn especially to try it.
Now wanting to make a yarn trip…that’s a different story. But the point is, this project is perfect for using up those odd balls of yarn that you have laying around from past WIPS, in addition to doing something useful with old gauge swatches.
You can make each new square as small or large as you want- the only limit is your imagination!
Pattern Notes
The patchwork pumpkin pattern is really more of a “concept” than a line-by-line pattern. The direction steps are outlined below and there IS a lot of detail and explanation. But, since you can use literally any stitch, yarn weight, or gauge for your “patches”, it would be impossible to turn this concept into a one-size-fits-all written patter. But, you CAN watch a full tutorial below of how I made mine!
Skill Level
While creating a patchwork pumpkin is really pretty easy, it does require you to seam up multiple pieces. If you are new to crocheting pumpkins and want a really easy and more “typical” version, try out my beginner crochet pumpkin here.
Materials Needed
To make one of these (crochet projects) for yourself, you will need the following:
- Various squares or rectangles of crochet work, such as gauge swatches from past projects.
Coordinating yarn for seaming up your pumpkin and for making any extra pieces you might need to finish off the patchwork.
- Hook(s) for seaming your project.
- Stuffing(amount needed will vary with the size of pumpkin you decide to make)
- Contrasting yarn for a simple stem OR a wooden stem
- Glue gun(optional-for gluing on a wooden stem)
- Tapestry needle(optional-for weaving in ends)
Sizing
Your pumpkin can end up being any size that you want-from mini to quite large! My patchwork pumpkin is medium-sized: about 6″ tall and 8-10″ across.
Gauge
The gauge for this project is a combination of all the gauges and stitches in your swatches. You really don’t need to consider it at all for the patchwork pumpkin, since you could end up using literally any combination of yarn weights, hook sizes, and stitches. Be free!
Even though you don’t need to really think about gauge to make this project, you can also read up on gauge here if you don’t already understand it and want to learn
Pattern Directions
Since creating this project isn’t about following an exact pattern, these directions are not your typical instructions that go row by row. But, you can follow these steps to get a patchwork pumpkin that YOU will be happy with.
Step 1: Gather
Choose your squares or rectangles. If you don’t have any on hand, now is the time to make some! You can use any size, color, or stitch that you want for this project.
Depending on the colors of swatches and yarn that you already have, you may choose to create some new squares or rectangles for your pumpkin just to get the perfect combination. Your final pumpkin could be 100% previously done swatches, 100% new pieces, or somewhere in between. But, if you are thinking of creating any new swatches for this project at all, it’s the perfect opportunity to learn some new stitches.
If you have a small number of swatches and don’t want to make a lot more, no worries! Just start by making a little pumpkin. Or, if you have SO many swatches that you don’t quite know what to do with yourself, use this as a prime opportunity to make a larger-than-life pumpkin.
The last thing that I’ll say about this step is that it’s good to save a little bit of coordinating yarn for now: whatever yarn you already have that goes with your chosen colors and that you haven’t already made into a swatch. If you watch the video tutorial below, you’ll see that in one place I crochet along the edge of some swatches with new yarn, and without seaming the pieces together. This is a great way to fill in your pumpkin shape as you go, especially if your existing pieces don’t seam up exactly the way that you expect. In this way, this project is actually very forgiving.
Okay, so with all of that said let’s move on to step 2!
Step 2: Arrange
Now that you have your squares, it’s time to play around with them and see what kind of pumpkin you want to make. Try different arrangements until you find a configuration that you like the best.
You can make your pumpkin as symmetrical or asymmetrical as you want. You might want to group similar swatches together, or use a more complex arrangement with different shapes and sizes.
The key here is to end up with a patchwork rectangle that is long and wide enough to create a pumpkin when you seam it all together. It should be long enough to fold in half and seam together to make a tube(we’ll do that in step 3) and then tall enough to have the top and bottom of the pumpkin gathered up.
Usually, creating a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio will give you a workable shape for creating a pumpkin. So, for example, if you arrange your pumpkin swatches in rows and the rectangle that’s forming is about 8″ tall, then you should try to make it at least 16″ long for a standard pumpkin shape. a longer piece will give you a shorter, flatter pumpkin, so it all depends on the “look” that you are going for.
Step 3: Seam
Once you have your arrangement finalized, it’s time to start seaming the pieces together. This is where that leftover coordinating yarn will come in handy. There are lots of different ways to seam crochet pieces together, but here I’m partial to getting things worked up quickly with some good old-fashioned slip stitches. However, you can also use a tapestry needle and the mattress stitch, or any other seaming method that you want.
Once your pieces are all connected into one rectangle, fold the rectangle and seam the two short edges together(keeping all the seams on the same side of your work).
Finally, after you have seamed your patchwork into a tube, go ahead and gather one end of the tube to make something that resembles a hat. The end that you gather first will become the bottom of the pumpkin.
Step 4: Fill
Now it’s time to fill your pumpkin!
You’ll probably want to use fiberfill or some other kind of filling for this project. However, I had SO many old gauge swatches when I made my own pumpkin, that I decided to actually use up more swatches to fill it. This was a nice alternative to using up some pricy fiberfill, and I was able to use up swatches in colors that didn’t fit with my pumpkin at all, and that probably would never have gotten used for anything else. Win win!
Step 5: Stem
Once your pumpkin is shaped and filled to your satisfaction, you can go ahead and gather the top up-either all the way or almost completely closed.
You can see in this pumpkin(LINK BEGINNER) that it’s very easy to add a wooden stem to any crochet pumpkin. However, for this one I did opt to simply crochet one instead.
To crochet a stem, simply single crochet around the opening/very top of your pumpkin. Then, go ahead and keep single crocheting in either separate rounds or one continuous loop until the stem is almost as long as you want it.
For the last couple of rounds, single crochet two together (do a single crochet decrease) multiple times in each round, until you can gather/stitch all the remaining stitches into more of a point. Then, you can bind off and hide any yarn ends that you still have.
and voila! Your very own unique pumpkin is done.
Video Tutorial
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Final Thoughts
It’s been great having you at Amelia Makes today! If you like this project, be sure to get on the list for updates and so you can be the first to see new projects just like this one. . Each week I send, crochet tips and tutorials, behind-the-scenes info, and other resources for my readers. Plus, as a bonus for signing up you’ll immediately get my mini bundle of surprise patterns straight to your inbox!
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Keep the Crafting Delightful!
Amelia
The Patchwork Pumpkin is a choose-your-own-adventure sort of crochet project, that will give you 100% customized home decor no matter how many you make!
