Sep 7

Crochet Your New Favorite Fall Decoration - A Ruffle Pumpkin

Three crocheted ruffle pumpkins made with white, navy blue and grey yarn with sticks for stems.

I love to change the decorations in our house every month to celebrate holidays and seasons. One of the reasons Fall is my favorite season is all the fun décor. Since we moved about a month ago, I am working with a whole new color palette and decided I needed to make some new pumpkins to match everything.

I saw a blanket pattern on Dada's Place I just loved the look of and wanted to see if I could translate it into a pumpkin. The pattern for the Ruffle Pumpkin was born and now I want to just keep making more because I love them so much! The ruffle makes them look almost like a decorative gourd which makes them even better in my book.

As usual, this pattern is free and very easy. There’s even a full video tutorial if that would help. Let's get started!

Watch the video tutorial:

Supplies for a Ruffle Pumpkin:

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G 4.0 mm hook
Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Yarn in White, Dark Denim, and Grey Beard
Poly-fil
A stick for the stem. I used a tool called a lopper to cut a small branch from a tree in my backyard. You could also buy these or use a cinnamon stick.
Yarn needle/darning needle
Scissors

Size and Yardage for a Ruffle Pumpkin:

The finished Ruffle Pumpkin measures about 6 inches tall without the stem, and 7 ½ inches wide. This will vary depending on your tension and how much you tighten the center of the pumpkin at the end.
For the background of the pumpkin you will need about 83 yards of yarn.
For the ruffle of the pumpkin you will need 64 yards of yarn.

Abbreviations:

Ch - chain

Dc – double crochet

Sl st – slip stitch

Blo – place stitches in the back loop only

Notes:

If making the Ruffle Pumpkin with two striping colors for the background, change colors after every 2 rows.
The chain 2 at the end of the row does not count as a stitch.

Ruffle Pumpkin Pattern:

With your background color

G 4.0 mm hook

Ch 27

Row 1 - Starting in the third chain from the hook, dc in each ch, ch 2 (25)

Hands crocheted in the back loop of a stitch with a Clover Armour hook.

Row 2 - Dc under both loops in the first stitch, BLO dc in the next 23 stitches, dc under both loops for the last stitch, ch 2 (25)

Row 3 - Dc under both loops in each stitch, ch 2 (25)

Hands holding a grey crocheted rectangle.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until you have 28 rows. For me this measured 13 ¼ inches wide but if yours is a little smaller or larger it will still work just as well.

Adding Ruffles to the Ruffle Pumpkin:

Hands holding a grey crocheted rectangle and using a Clover Armour crochet hook to work under the front loop of a stitch.

With a slip knot, attach yarn to a front loop remaining from a row in which you only worked in the back loops.

Hands holding a crocheted grey rectangle with white ruffles.

(Ch 5, sl st to the next stitch) and repeat for a total of 23 ruffles in each of the 14 rows. Finish off after each row of ruffles and reattach new yarn to the next row of front loops.

Hands holding a grey crocheted rectangle with white yarn tails hanging down on the back side.

To deal with yarn ends once I finished making the ruffles, I thread the yarn tails onto a yarn needle, go down through the front of the background to the back/inside of the pumpkin with the yarn and go under two stitches or so and knot the yarn. Then I leave the yarn tail hanging down on the back side/inside of the pumpkin to be used as stuffing. This way is much faster and doesn’t show through your stitches on the front.

Hands using a yarn needle to stitch two sides of a crocheted grey rectangle together to make a ruffle pumpkin.

Fold your work so the right sides are facing one another and the first row and the last row are lined up together. Using the yarn tail and yarn needle, sew the two sides together going under both loops on the final row and the loops on the first row.

Hands using a yarn needle to weave in and out of the edge of a crocheted circle to pull the hole closed.

Once the sides are sewn together, flip your work right side out.

Making sure the yarn tails are tucked to the inside of the pumpkin, use the same yarn tail to weave in and out of the stitches at one end to create the bottom of the pumpkin. Pull the yarn tail to tighten and close the hole. Run a few stitches back and forth across the opening to pull it entirely closed.

Knot the yarn, finish off and weave in that end.

Stuff the pumpkin with Poly-fil. You want it to be rounded, but don’t overstuff it or your stitches will stretch and the stuffing will show through.

Now it’s time to work on the top end of the pumpkin. Attach another piece of yarn to the top edge with a knot and use this piece to weave in and out of the top edge the same way you did at the bottom.

A hand holding the top of a crocheted ruffle pumpkin and closing the hole in the top around a stem created with a stick.

Insert your stem/stick into the opening and push it down into the stuffing.

Pull the tail to close the opening around the stem/stick and weave the end across the opening a few times to completely close the hole.

If you’d like the pumpkin to be “indented” at the top and bottom, use your yarn needle to run the same yarn tail through the top and out the bottom. Then move the needle over and run it back up through the bottom to the top. I do this a few times and then pull on the yarn tail to cinch it all in.

Knot the end and weave it in as well as any remaining yarn tails.

I hope you have fun coming up with awesome color combinations and making a bunch of these pumpkins!

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Happy crafting!

This pattern MAY NOT be copied, reproduced, altered, published or distributed in any way. You MAY sell finished products made with this pattern, but please credit me (Find Me Crafting).