Ideas for Fall Decor

September 1 has once again rolled around, and with it comes a new season and great reason to hand craft some decor items to add color and festive feeling to your home. 

This month is also National Sewing month, so we've asked four of the design team members to show off some ideas for sewn decor. Their ideas have me longing for cool evenings, warm sweaters, and apple cider for sure. Check out their projects and be ready to get inspired-

Designer: Kendra McCracken
Fall is my favorite time of the year. We're winding down from the "lazy" days of summer, the days that are filled to the brim with everything from vacations to summer sports for the kids. It is a time when the air begins to cool and as a result, we spend a little more time indoors and that means for many people, more care is given to home decor for the season.

Our dining room is the first room people see when the enter our home. Wanting to keep it inviting and cheery, I designed this table runner for our dining room table. I found this old tressle table at an antique store a few years ago and love the character of knots and imperfections in the wood so I don't like to cover them with a table cloth. Piecing together shapes cut from a variety of calico fabrics allowed me to add a touch of whimsy to my dining room while letting the "beauty" (because that's in the eye of the beholder!) of all those character flaws in my table to continue to shine.

Using the Circles and Hearts Shape Templates, trace the 3" openings onto the back side of your fabrics and cut them out using the No.8 Razor Edge Scissors.  Each shape is a double layer of 2 contrasting fabrics. Each 12" x 12" section of the runner takes 32 shapes which leaves you with 16 total shapes after you create a double layer.

After pairing up your shapes into double layers, remove the top layer. On the back side of the hearts, draw a small circle. On the circles, draw a small heart. These are supposed to be relaxed and imperfect so don't stress over keeping the shapes and sized consistent. Cut the small shapes out and place re-layer the fabrics.

Stitch the layers together close to the raw edges of each shape. Next, stitch two times around each small shape. Using short lengths of ric-rac, connect the shapes top to bottom by first pinning the strips in place and then stitching them. Once you have 4 columns of connected shapes the desired length of your runner, tack the shapes together side-to-side. I left the sections hanging over the edges of the table unconnected.

I am one who adores frayed fabrics so as this runner is laundered, the edges of the shapes will fray which is fine with me!  If you're one who prefers nice, finished edges, you can instead use the 3 1/2" opening on the templates leaving a small opening in the seam, and turn the shapes inside out after stitching them together with a 1/4" seam allowance. The raw edges will then be tucked inside each shape.

Designer:  Lisa Storms

Fall has always been my very favorite season, especially for décor.  As nature puts on a beautiful show outside, bring those colors indoors to warm up as the weather begins to chill.  Placemats are a great place to start as you can keep them out on the table all the time or save them for special gatherings. 

Here I created a very simple rectangle placemat out of plain cotton fabric but infused fall's beauty using an expected stamp created from layers of punched cardstock! 

Use an acrylic ruler and rotary trimmer on craft mat to cut out two 14" x 18" rectangles of neutral fabric.  Set one aside and place the other on a sheet of wax paper.  A cool perk of making your own stamp out of punches is you can punch out lots of punches from scrap paper to place your design out first.  Play around with different designs before committing with permanent paint.  Glue approximately 10 non-textured cardstock leaves using the new, limited edition Sweet Maple squeeze punch together covered completely on each layer with a glue stick.  Glue on a handle using any spare household item you have around (we always seem to have homeless dice) and allow created punch to dry fully.

Squeeze fabric puffy paint (or other fabric paint) onto a separate wax paper palette placing colors next to each other you want for each leaf.  Stamp into paint and stamp lightly onto wax paper before fabric.   Set aside to dry fully.  Once completely dry, sew right sides of rectangles together leaving a 4 inch gap to pull back right side out.  Use stuffing tool from Sewing Multi-Tool for crisp corners.  Fold under and top stitch around enter perimeter.  Add interfacing or batting when working with thin fabrics.

Using the same stamping method as above, stamp a leaf onto neutral felt and allow to dry fully before cutting out with Micro-Tip scissors.  Sew onto corner of napkin for easy, coordinating embellishment. 
Next - to create a wood grain napkin ring, condition a 2 oz. block of Sculpey oven bake clay per directions.  Roll out onto wax paper with acrylic roller to approximately 1/8" inch thickness.  Sprinkle with water and place another sheet of wax paper on top.  Roll or rub over wood grain texture plate with your roller.  Pull off wax paper to expose texture.  Use acrylic ruler and fingertip craft knife to cut out rectangle the length of the texture plate design (5.5") by 1.5".  Be sure to place ruler on outside of cutting area instead of op top of texture. 

Roll clay around an empty toilet paper roll (cleaned of any remaining spots of paper) and place onto cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil with edges of ring placed down.  Bake according to package directions.  Allow to cool fully and remove from roll.

Paint inside and edges of ring with Sulpey Chocolate Brown Antiquing Medium and rub off with paper towel.  Paint exterior texture with the same and roll off excess onto non-textured cardstock as shown.  Allow to dry fully. 

Place all pieces together for a beautiful, fall place setting.

Designer: Lisa Truesdell

This Jack-O-Lantern has a variety of looks – without the pain of carving and recarving a pumpkin.  He makes a great interactive piece of fall décor, and your kids will love changing his face over and over.  I made one pumpkin and gave him 3 different sets of fave pieces – perfect for mixing and matching all season long.

Start by creating a pattern for the panels of your pumpkin.  How tall and wide you make your panel will determine how big your pumpkin is. You’ll want them to be pointed  My pattern is about 10in tall nd 5in wide at the widest point, and my finished pumpkin is 7.5in tall and 9in across. I needed about 1/2yard of orange flannel to make my pumpkin.

Use your Fiskars Comfort Grip rotary trimmer or MicroTip scissors to cut your panels.  Since I made my panels fairly wide, I cut five of them.  If yours are more on the skinny side, you’ll want six. Pin two of the panels together, right sides in, and stitch them together. Countinue adding your panels and at the end, sew the first and last ones together.  Stuff your pumpkin with fiberfill through the opening in the top.

To finish the top, use your USX and circle template to cut a 3.5in circle from a scrap of paper.  Use that as a pattern and cut a circle using Fiskars Pinking Sheers from green felt. Cut this circle in half, and cut a stem from brown felt.  Pin the stem in the middle of the two circle halves and stitch the circle back together.

You’ll need to place your green felt circle over the opening in the top of the pumpkin and hand stitch it in place.  At this point, you have a finished plain pumpkin. It’s time to add some features and make him a jack-o-lantern!

I punched circle, triangle and squares using my Fiskars Squeeze Punches and cut each shapes out three times from brown felt. I also cut three smiles from brown felt.  I customized the smiles by cutting different teeth shapes, and cut away parts of the other shapes to create eyes and noses.

I added the loop side of the velcro to the back of each of my face pieces, and the hook side to my pumpkin.

Now it’s time to let your kids loose creating some funny pumpkin faces – they’ll love it!

Designer: Patti Milazzo

I love decorating for the fall season!  Nothing makes my home look cozier than the colors of autumn.  This soft fabric wall décor project has unfinished edges and mixes in a little paper crafting for fun.  And the sunflower and vibrant leaves make it a cute addition to your seasonal décor for any room.

To make the leaves, I folded my fabric in half and traced my leaf shapes from the Leaves Shape Template onto the right side of the fabric squares.  I also traced and cut a smaller outline of each leaf from felt. 

I then sandwiched the felt between the fabric square (lining up the shapes as best possible) and stitched around the outline and the along the veins several times.  Once this was done, I cut out each of the leaves with the No. 8 Non Stick Scissors about 1/8” from the stitching. 

For the sunflower, I traced a 3.5” circle in the center of a folded square of yellow fabric using the Circle Shape Template.  Then I drew pointed petals all around.  I cut a rough version of the same flower from felt and in a similar fashion to the leaves above I layered the pieces and stitched around the sunflower design.  I also created a 3” and 2.5” circle from brown fabric and felt.  Once these pieces were sewn I trimmed them with Pinking Shears. 

I then layered the circles in the center of the sunflower, stitched them together.  I used the Sewing Multi Tool’s Stuffer Tool attachment to stuff additional fiberfill under the smallest circle.  I then secured black buttons with embroidery thread.
 
In addition to the fabric pieces for this project, I made a tag using Squeeze Punches (including the new Pick of the Patch Squeeze Punch) and the Apron Lace Border Punch. 

I also curled some grosgrain ribbon to further embellish the project.  Once all my pieces were complete, I used Fiskars Portable Glue Gun to secure my individual pieces to a wooden plaque.

Now it's your turn to create! For even more sewing ideas stay tuned every day in September for a new project at www.fiskarscrafts.com/projects as well as a new article posted at www.fiskarscrafts.com/articles every Monday!

By fiskars design team