Don’t Forget to Save Your Pumpkin Stems!
11/18/23 Update
It’s that time of the year when some of our pumpkins have seen their best days and time to get rid of them. If you’re interested in making your own velvet pumpkins next year with real stems, don’t forget to save those old stems now!
Real pumpkin stems are the perfect touch for your handmade velvet or fabric pumpkins. Check out this blog post and pin for next year:
And if you don’t want to sew a velvet pumpkin, here’s a post showing you how to cover a cheap Styrofoam pumpkin and make it more upscale. You could remove the plastic stem and use one of your real stems as well. There is a link below that shows you how to dry your real stems and paint them.
Being Resourceful
My husband puts up with a lot from me, no doubt. Sometimes when he’s cleaning out the garage he will find something to discard and say “what is this?”
My response is usually “Don’t throw that out! I’m going to use it for……” So he really is very patient.
Pumpkin Stems
Save your pumpkin stems to use at a later time. It’s really not that much trouble. Just cut them off, and put them in a bag somewhere to dry. The kicker is remembering next year where you put them!
Just carefully cut the stem out and remove the excess pumpkin flesh. Sometimes stems will snap off okay, but most of the time not completely. So I cut them off and trim them later.
Dried pumpkin stems can be painted, or not, and hot glued to handmade velvet pumpkins. They are the perfect touch! They’re just never available when you need them.
Saving your stems is one way to remedy this problem. Engage your family and/or neighbors to help. Better yet, if you have a friend who has a pumpkin patch, scout around through the field for stems before the ground gets plowed up for the winter.
Dried Stems
The image below is some of my dried stems from last year. They will work fine just as they are, or you can paint them with a brush if you like. The wonkier shape, the better!
I have a tutorial for painting dried pumpkin stems too! You know, dried okra would probably make a neat pumpkin stem too. Sometimes before a garden is gone completely, and most of the okra has been harvested, or you’ve gotten tired of it, large pods will dry on the stalk. Now, I don’t have a garden, but I have in years past grabbed some dried okra pods and sprayed them gold to use in fall arrangements. Just a thought)))
Wrapping it up!
Gosh I can’t believe I’m already writing about NEXT fall, but if you’re a crafter, you’re always thinking months ahead))))
