Muslin Pumpkin Craft

Looking for a low-cost Halloween or autumn craft for young children?  How about coloring fabric pumpkins?  You can buy all sorts of fabric-ready crayons, markers and paints these days.  But we wanted to try the old fashioned craft of coloring with ordinary crayons.
I drew and cut a simple pumpkin shape out of scrap muslin (100% cotton) fabric for each child.  They drew whatever they wanted onto the fabric.  The crayon goes on easily as long as the fabric is held taut.  This was a little harder for the youngest preschoolers.
I put a layer of paper over the top and ran a hot (cotton setting) iron over each piece of fabric for about three minutes to set the color.  Caution:  don't overheat and do this away from children.  The color set enough that it did not wash out of my test piece of fabric after I washed it.  Although the color was not as bright as with some of the newer media, it still worked.  I understand that some people like to have the children draw onto paper and then transfer from paper to the fabric.
I finished each pumpkin by sewing a small machine blanket stitch around the edge.

Easy, inexpensive muslin treat bag

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