Pampas Pumpkin with a Macrame Tassel
Growing up, my house was known around the block as the house with the amazingly carved pumpkins during Halloween. My Dad was always the most talented pumpkin carver and we were so proud to put out our pumpkins and display them for all the little trick-o-treaters every year.
We’re not quite at the point where we’re putting out carved pumpkins on our porch, and to be honest, who even knows what Halloween is going to look like this year with all that Covid in the air? But that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate and get festive on porches to welcome in the Fall season.
I wanted to take a contemporary, modern approach to my pumpkin this year and after being obsessed with all the dried florals from my friend at Tumbleweed Floral Truck, I decided to repurpose my dried floral bouquet from her shop, combine it with some pampas grass I found along the Coast, and turn my white pumpkin into a glorified vase.
I also managed to macrame a little tassel which served as a little necklace of sorts! I’ve got a little tutorial for you for both the pumpkin and the tassel - hope you have a little fun creating your Fall magic.
MAKING YOUR PAMPAS PUMPKIN AND MACRAME TASSEL
TOOLS:
Scissors
Double-sided tape
Knife
Spoon
MATERIALS:
Medium white pumpkin
3-4 Branches of pampas grass
Dried florals
Cotton 3mm macrame rope
Jute
Frog Pin
INSTRUCTIONS
THE PUMPKIN
1. Cut out the top of the pumpkin and take out all of the seeds and inner parts of the pumpkin and scrape it all out using a spoon.
2. Place the frog pin in the bottom center of the pumpkin.
3. Cut down your pampas grass so that its the right height that you want your grass to sit at and start placing it into the frog pin.
4. Once you’ve inserted all your pampas grass into the pin, add the bouquet to the side that you want facing front and spread out the florals so you’re happy with how they look. You may need to add a little pampas grass to the back so give the bouquet a little more volume but keep adding and taking a step back to look at the overall look of your pumpkin.
THE MACRAME TASSEL
MATERIALS:
15-20 pieces of cotton rope (3-5mm) - 12 inches long
1 piece of cotton rope (3-5mm) - 15 inches long
10 feet of cotton rope for the macrame part
Comb
1. Gather your 15-20 pieces of rope and find the middle. Use a piece of jute to tie them securely in the middle.
2. Grab the ropes and flip them so that the jute that tied them together is now horizontal. Place the long piece of rope that’ll be used as the necklace portion and secure the tassel strings using a piece of jute, wrapping them around multiple times and tying them to secure.
3. Brush out the tassels of the strands.
4. Once brushed out, cut all the strands so that they are the same length.
5. You can choose to leave the tassel like this or you can add the macrame skirt for a fancier look.
6. Grab your 10 foot rope and cut it into 12-14 pieces of rope, ensuring that each piece is about 3 times the length of your tassel. Attach the pieces using a lark’s head knot and be sure they go all the way around the tassel and tie them in the back (ensure that the number of hanging ropes is an even number).
7. Add square knots along the top. Using 4 strings of rope, it is two mirrored parts. Here is a great tutorial of how to do a square knot.
8. Continue tying a row of square knots with the remaining ropes.
9. On the next row, skipping the first two pieces of rope, continue doing square knots, leaving two pieces of ropes left at the end. Keep continuing this on in the next row - until all the macrame knots come to a point.
8. You can leave it like this or you can finish it off using simple overhand knots and trim so it makes it look more polished.
ATTACHING THE TASSEL TO THE PUMPKIN
1. Using double-sided tape, place pieces along the perimeter of the opening of the pumpkin and secure the rope tassel to the pumpkin, tying it in the back.
