Vintage Style Drop Cloth Carrots for Spring!

These farmhouse drop cloth carrots have a vintage vibe and are an inexpensive project for Spring! Follow along with the video tutorial or read the written instructions below.

farmhouse carrot bundle in wood basket with tulips

This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases. My full disclosure policy can be found here.

Who's ready for Spring?

If I'm being totally honest, I could go for another month or so of cold weather! That's only because spring here in Texas feels more like summer everywhere else! That darn humidity is already creeping up!

With that being said, it's always fun to start adding some bunnies and flowers to the decor. And this year I decided to make my own farmhouse carrots, after not finding anything I liked at the store.

Crafting with drop cloth is a fantastic way to create something with a farmhouse look and feel, but for very little money! A single drop cloth can make a lot of projects.

Here are a few other home decor pieces I've made from canvas drop cloth (click the links below for more details):

If you're new to the idea of creating home decor with canvas drop cloth, just keep these tips in mind:

drop cloth will be stiff out of the packaging; wash in warm water and fully dry and you'll be amazed at the softness
rather than cutting drop cloth, it's easier to rip it! Just snip an inch or so with scissors to get started, then grab both sides and pull to rip the fabric; you'll be left with perfectly fringed edges!
drop cloth is messy - expect a lot of strings, but they're easy to grab and throw away
you can easily bleach drop cloth if you prefer a whiter look

How to make farmhouse carrots from drop cloth

If you'd prefer to watch me make these carrots, click here for the video tutorial

You'll need just a few basic supplies to make these farmhouse carrots, many of which you probably already have at home. I'm including Amazon links below for your convenience.

Supplies:

canvas drop cloth
scissors
fabric glue or sewing machine
rice or poly fiberfill
needle and thread
jute twine
raffia
alphabet stamps and dye based ink pad (optional)

Step One - Create the carrot shape

You can make your carrots any size! Cut a triangle (it doesn't have to be perfect) by folding the drop cloth in half, drawing a line with a ruler and cutting it out. Just for reference, mine measured about 9"x5".

Fold the triangle in half and hand stitch or sew the open edge. You can try fabric glue but I haven't personally tested the strength of the bond with glue. Snip off the tip of the carrot to reduce some of the bulk.

Step Two - Turn carrot

Turn the drop cloth carrot right side out. This is a little tricky (and more difficult the smaller your carrot is). Use a needle to help draw the fabric out at the tip but don't expect to get a perfect point (the fabric will be more blunt). Once the carrot is turned, snip off the tip at the seam so the top of the carrot is straight across.

Step Three - Fill the carrot

In the video, I explained a little bit about my thoughts for using rice to fill my carrots. Rice gives the carrot more weight and a nicer feel, but if you'd prefer to you can use polyfill.

Before you fill the carrot completely to the top, hand stitch a loose gathering stitch around the top of the carrot about an inch down from the edge; Make sure to leave a tail (this will be pulled to gather the top shut).

Step Four - Create carrot tops

Wrap a couple strands of raffia loosely around your hand. Cut through the loops at the top only. Hold the bundle securely and stick the bundle into the rice so the snipped tops are sticking out from the top of the carrot. You may need to add a little more rice but don't fill carrot above the gathering stitch. This might be easier to watch me do than read about - watch the VIDEO TUTORIAL HERE.

Pull the gathering stitch tight to secure and tie a knot. Wrap around carrot and repeat if you have enough thread. Wrap a piece of jute twine around the stitch and pull tight. Tie it off with two knots. This should keep the carrot tops from falling out...if you're losing rice or raffia, you haven't tied it tight enough.

fill fabric carrot, stitch a gather seam along the top and pull to secure

Step Five - Embellish carrots

This next step is totally optional but I think it adds a ton of farmhouse charm to these vintage style carrots! Pick your saying and stamp it on using the black dye-based ink. I stamped "5 cents" and "home grown" to my carrots. Some additional ideas are:

farm fresh
15 cents a bunch (if you plan to bundle the carrots)
happy Spring
happy Easter
carrots
bunnies stop here

You can bundle carrots by tying a length of jute twine around three carrots. This makes them perfect for styling in your Spring and Easter vignettes. Or leave them and decorate with them individually.

If you love primitive decor, you can dirty the carrots with a little watered-down brown craft paint or even smudge them with a little brown chalk/pastels to give them that rustic, grungy primitive look.

Shop the look

Try adding the drop cloth carrots to a bowl or basket, along with a few bunnies and eggs.

pink tulips and drop cloth carrots bundle in wood trug

drop cloth carrots, vintage ironstone, bunnies and eggs

bowl filled with ironstone, eggs, vintage drop cloth carrots and bunnies

I had so much fun making these darling drop cloth carrots! I hope you try making a few yourself! If you're on Instagram, make sure to tag me @diybeautify if you share your handmade carrots!