Sustainable Halloween

I have to admit that I’ve never been hugely into Halloween; apart from the occasional party it pretty much went past unnoticed when I was growing up. All that seems to have changed and my two children find it really exciting and pester me for sweets, costumes and pumpkins. So I’ve slowly been caving in but I’m trying to do it sustainably and not let it turn into buying mountains of plastic tat. We have amassed a few decorations over the years so I keep them packed away and bring them out a few days before Halloween and the kids seem to enjoy delving into the box and rediscovering what we’ve got. We’ve recently moved around some our furniture so I had an empty space to fill so thought I’d have a go at making some fabric pumpkins using some scraps of fabric. They were surprisingly easy and, if I do say so myself, look quite good.

I refuse to buy costumes – my kids are at the age where they’re growing so quickly that anything I get this year is unlikely to fit again by next year. My eldest wants to dress up as a ghost which is nice and simple as I had an old white sheet so I just needed to cut a couple of eye holes and we were good to go. My youngest wants a witch costume and I was lucky that a friend passed a skirt on to me. It’s a tad on the large side so I need to take it in a bit but at least that means it should fit next year. She’s going to wear it with a pair of dark tights and a dark long sleeved t-shirt that she already had. I’ll confess to buying a hat but the plan is to use it again. I’ve got a little wicker basket that my mother in law gave to me so we’re going to use that to put sweets in. Our local Facebook selling pages are awash with Halloween costumes at the moment so they’d be a good option if you want to avoid buying new and haven’t got time or the resources to make something.

I always felt that getting a pumpkin to carve was fairly eco friendly as it can go in the food waste once Halloween is over, but I’m getting more and more conscious of food waste and it does seem mad that such huge numbers of pumpkins are grown with no intention of them ever being eaten. So I’m busily researching on the internet how to toast the seeds and what I can make with the inside flesh. Last year we put our pumpkin out in the front garden for the birds and squirrels to finish off which they loved, so I’m planning to do the same this year.

How To Make Fabric Scrap Pumpkins

On the reverse of your fabric draw a circle – I drew round a large dinner plate. Cut out the circle and then draw a second slightly smaller circle.

Using the circle as a guide sew round the circle in a biggish running stitch. Make sure you leave the ends loose and leave them hanging on the right side of the fabric. I doubled up the thread to make it a bit stronger.

Once you’ve gone all the way round the circle take the two loose ends and give them a pull to gather up the material. You’re now ready to fill the pumpkin. I had an old cushion so I pulled some filling out to use to stuff my pumpkin. You could try using scraps of fabric.

Once you’ve filled the pumpkin, pull the ends of the thread and knot them and trim off any excess. You should now have a bit of extra fabric sticking up which will form the stalk.

To make the base of the stalk stronger and help hold the fabric in place I wrapped an elastic band around the top.

Now take some wool or string and tie firmly around the elastic band. Wind the string around the fabric stalk so that it’s covered. When you’ve completed it tuck the end of the string under the coils.

To finish off I added a bow with some string and contrasting ribbon.