Halloween Pillow or Wall Hanging

I inherited a number of unfinished sewing projects from my mother-in-law, one of which was a template and enough fabric to make a set of Halloween placemats.  Instead of making a set of placemats, I used the template my mother-in-law made to make a Halloween pillow that can also be used as a wall hanging.

In my mother-in-law’s stash, this is the uncompleted project that I discovered:

The project was missing an eye and nose, and the mouth was a bit crooked, so my first step was to cut out those parts from the black fabric.  I then pinned the pieces to one of the two orange pumpkins that my mother-in-law had cut out and used a zig-zag stitch to sew them into place.

I wanted my creation to have a stem and found a scrap of brown fabric that worked perfectly.  I cut out the stem, sewed it, flipped it, and then stuffed it, including a pipe cleaner in with the stuffing so that I could bend the stem when it is on display.

On the back pillow piece, I sewed a pocket that will hold a dowel if I want to use my pillow as a wall hanging.

The stem was sewn in place on the right side of the pumpkin face.  Then with right sides together, I sewed the edges leaving space at the bottom for turning it right side out.  I trimmed the edges before turning it and ironed the flap at the bottom up on both sides.

You can better see here where the unsewn parts were ironed into place.  Fill the pumpkin with fiberfill, sew the bottom edge, and it’s finished.

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this cute guy on the sofa in my sewing room.  I won’t leave him here because then I’d be the only one to enjoy his happy face.

A great spot for him is hanging on my screened porch to great visitors.

Another spot is in my formal living room where I can see his happy face each day.  You can find the directions for making the leaf and acorn pillows here.