Last year I made a trio of denim pumpkins out of a pair of my husband’s old jeans.
I had so much fun cutting up those jeans creating those pumpkins that I decided I had one more (at least for now) pumpkin craft in me.
In the spirt of reduce, reuse, repurpose and pumpkin-fy everything, I decided to DIY a leather pumpkin.
Yes, leather! Everything else has been used to decorate faux pumpkins. Why not leather too?
If you’ve been following this blog for a hot minute then it won’t surprise you that the leather for this pumpkin project came from a pair of old boots that I cut apart. My favorite boots! The boots were not repairable and would not make a good donation, so that’s why I cut them apart to use the leather for crafty projects.
I think the leather might look better on this pumpkin than it ever did on my feet! You be the judge.
If you have a faux pumpkin, scissors, scrap leather (faux or real) and a lot of hot glue
If you don’t have a pair of old boots that you want to cut up for this project, then you can always buy a sheet of leather from the craft store or there are a lot of options like this on on Amazon
You probably don’t need this tutorial on how to DIY a leather pumpkin, but I like to hear myself type.
Here’s how the crafty magic happens…
First, your faux pumpkin is probably going to have a stem. If it doesn’t have a stem is it even a pumpkin? My pumpkin came from the Dollar Store and it is very easy to cut the stem off with a knife.
If you’ve never cut into one of these pumpkins before, you’re missing out. The pumpkin is probably going to be hollow, which is a less fancy way of saying carvable. You’re going to replace the faux stem with a twig that you scavenge from your yard! Or your neighbor’s yard. I won’t judge.
I chose to add the twig as the last step, but you can be a rebel and add it at the beginning.
Second, decide what design you want on your pumpkin. I wanted a pumpkin with lots of texture, so I cut out small squares from my piece of leather and overlapped them on the pumpkin in a quasi-patchwork pattern.
You could do stripes, circles, leather braids. There’s no right or wrong! Have fun with it!
Third, get your glue gun
Last, add your stem. If you have a fat twig, you might be able to just wedge it in the pumpkin and it will stay. My twig was pretty thin, so I trimmed it to size and put a dab of hot glue on the end of it before inserting it in the pumpkin. The glue insured the twig wouldn’t move around, which I tested by accidentally dropping the pumpkin during this photoshoot.
I did have to add a few small of pieces of leather to cover the gaps around the twig. The curly-Q on the stem is from a sprig of faux branches I had on hand. (I realize the irony of adding a faux twig to a real twig.) I thought the curly-Q made the pumpkin look more like a pumpkin and less like a caramel apple.
Now, sit back and revel in your handiwork. You can even humble brag to your friends! I would.
I am rarely (if ever) unique in ANY of my crafts and DIYs, but I did a quick Google search as I was finishing up this blog post and realized leather pumpkins don’t really seem to be a thing. At least, not ones made out of leather scraps from an old pair of boots.
I can’t imagine why not!?
There’s a fine line between oddball and trendsetter, but I’m okay with that!
If you DIY a leather pumpkin, it would make me so happy if you shared the pictures. I want to see your creation! Let’s be oddballs trendsetters together!
Hey! Thanks for visiting my blog today. It makes my day to share these stories with you and I hope it brightened your day as well. If you liked this DIY Leather Pumpkin, here are some other posts you might enjoy.
DIY Leather Map From a Pair of Old Boots
Leather Wrapped Rock Paperweight
Paper Pumpkins – One of my favorite, almost free DIYs
Skinny Jeans Embellished with Embroidery Thread
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