How to make cute plaid pumpkins using toilet paper rolls!

In today’s post: Spruce up your fall decor with these easy DIY plaid flannel pumpkins made with toilet paper rolls.

You’ve probably seen toilet paper pumpkins before – this is one of those crafts that’s been around for AGES. I mean, I think people were making these back when I was a kid and that was a LONG time ago. Anyway, I was at the fabric store the other day and saw a collection of gorgeous plaid flannels and decided the good old toilet paper pumpkin could use a little update. A PLAID update.

Crafting doesn’t get much easier than this, people. Find yourself some pretty fall colored fabric, wrap up a roll of toilet paper, and stuff a stick in the top for a stem: (pumpkin) mission accomplished.

How to make toilet paper pumpkins

As you’ve probably deduced, this craft hardly requires instructions, but it’s your lucky day–you’re getting them anyway. Start by gathering your supplies:

• Toilet paper rolls: I used “mega” rolls because they are a lot wider than the standard rolls. We want our pumpkins to look round and fat, not tall and square (more on that later)
• Fabric: you’ll need an 18 inch square of fabric for each pumpkin. You can buy a fat quarter, which is 18×22 inches, or purchase half a yard of fabric, which will be enough for two pumpkins. I used plaid flannel because it’s soft and pretty, but you can use pretty much any fabric you’d like.
• Sticks: you’ll want at least one 3-4 inch stick for each pumpkin stem. I just told my kids to find me some sticks last time we were at the park and then I cut them to size. If you don’t want to forage for sticks, feel free to buy cinnamon sticks and use those instead.
• Green ribbon or leaves
• A pencil

Watch this video to see how to make plaid flannel toilet paper pumpkins (written instructions follow):

 

1 – Lay out your fabric square. Place a roll of TP in the center. 2 – UNROLL the toilet paper 8-10 times. Then loosely ROLL it back up, twisting and scrunching the toilet paper as you do so. This give you a rounder pumpkin shape. 3 – Grab one corner of the fabric and tuck it inside the toilet paper roll, using a pencil to push it down. 4 – Continue with the other three corners, gathering up the fabric as you stuff each corner into the center of the toilet paper roll. 5 – Tie a ribbon around a twig and stuff it in the center of the pumpkin for a stem.

Did you catch the most important part of the instructions? Make sure to UNROLL the toilet paper about 8 times, then loosely roll it back up, twisting it as you do so, to make your toilet paper roll a little rounder. This makes the finished TP pumpkins much cuter!

   

Want more Halloween ideas? Check out some of these posts:

Easy Halloween candles

Print + fold Halloween bookmarks

Print + color Halloween masks for kids

20 best Halloween treats for kids

30 best Halloween cookies

20 scary movies for tweens and teens