How to Make a Ghost Pillow for Halloween

I love finding new tidbits to spruce up my home for holidays.  It’s even better if I can make them myself.  I’ve been looking for a cute Halloween pillow for my living room and decided to make my own.  This ghost pillow was a fun weekend project that cost less than $20!  The best part is that this project is completely customizable.  You don’t have to be a great artist because it’s cute and quirky.  Ghosts are amorphous and can come in all kinds of shapes, so feel free to get creative!

Materials for Ghost Pillow

• White fabric (< 1 yard) – $7.50
• Black fabric or felt (1 felt sheet or a fabric quarter) – $0.50
• Doll/pillow fill – $7
• White thread (heavy thickness) – $1.75
• Needles (larger quilter’s needles recommended – I used size 7)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Pins (optional but recommended)
• Iron
• You can complete this entire project by hand, but I will admit it would go faster with a sewing machine if you have one.

Total cost: $16.75

Steps

1. Trace design onto white fabric. The white fabric should be folded in half so that when you cut out your design you have two pillow pieces that will become the front and back.  Tip!  Keep in mind that you will be turning it inside out to make a pillow.  The final pillow will be thinner than the original traced design.  It can get more difficult to stuff if it’s thin.
2. Trace and cut out eyes and mouth for face.

   

3. Attach the face to one of the white pillow pieces. I chose a blanket stitch with white thread to make the stitching pop and to add overall texture.  Feel free to choose your favorite stitch!  If you’re not that into sewing, you could actually attach these with fabric glue instead.

   

4. Lay the other white piece on top of the one you’ve been working with that now has the face. Important!  The face will now be in between the two white pieces because we will turn it right side out once we sew these edges together.

   

5. Pin the two pieces of fabric together to keep them in place as you work.
6. Sew around the edges of the fabric. I worked about a quarter inch or so from the edge and used the backstitch, but use what works for you.  You could even use a sewing machine to really speed up this project.  Important!  Leave an edge open for stuffing.  It’s easier if you leave a large space.  I left nearly the entire bottom edge.  We will sew this up last.
7. For the section you are leaving open to stuff the pillow, fold the edges where the stitches would go and iron them down to leave a clean edge.

   

8. Turn right side out. You should no longer see the raw edges of the fabric and should see the face on the outside again.
9. Stuff your creation! I think this is the most exciting part.  You might need to use the eraser end of a pencil or a marker (cap on!) to push stuffing into thinner parts like the arms.  I only loosely stuffed the body because I didn’t want the ghost to end up too round and cylindrical.
10. For the final step, we need to seal off the open edge. A ladder stitch allows you to sew it up and hide the stitches along the ridge we made when we ironed the fabric in step 7.

Enjoy your unique ghost pillow!  If you’re looking for more inexpensive fall decor ideas, check out my previous post.

Tips

• I would choose a thicker fabric if possible. It can be tougher to work with, but it’s more durable than a simple cotton.  I would not recommend felt for the entire pillow since everything has a habit of sticking to felt.
• Keep your ghost design simple! I’m happy with the design I chose, but you could easily nix arms altogether to save yourself some time and complication.
• For the face, you could definitely choose a different approach if you want to hide the stitches. If you decide on black thread, keep in mind that you will still get contrast with the white background.  Since you’re likely to see the stitches either way, I decided to embrace this and make it part of the design.  Then again, you could use fabric glue to skip this whole step.
• Work with short segments of thread. It’s easy to get long sections tangled, especially with thicker thread and fabric.
• Leave a large section open for stuffing the pillow. This bears repeating.  If you leave a small opening, it will be hard to get stuffing into all the crevices.