I knew as soon as I saw that first little fuzzy ghost pillow floating (levitating?) around the internet, that I needed several for this Halloween season. But rather than buying them for around $18 a pop, I figured it would be just as easy to make them!
This is the inspo for this DIY. Some may want to skip the making part and going straight to buying them. These ones are pretty cost effective, you get all three for $25!
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links while at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
As with everything else, why buy what you can make right? This doesn’t always make my husband happy but it’s my MO.
This is also a perfect last minute halloween decoration. You can make several of them in a couple hours!
When you make them yourself, there is so much room for customization! You can make them any color and any fabric you’d like! My brain is running wild with all the possibilities!
But alas, I already had white sherpa fabric sitting around from my accent pillows that I never finished. So that is what I am sticking with for this tutorial.
about the pattern
I’ve made three different sized patterns so that you can choose how big you would like your pillow. They are around 17″, 15″, and 11.5″. Depending on your individual printer the sizes may slightly vary.
They will print on 4 pages for the medium and large ghosts and 2 pages for the small ghost. You’ll want to make sure your printer settings are set to print at 100% scale.
The grey areas are meant to be cut off so that you can overlap the paper and line up each black line. There is an example in the download.
How to Make a viral sherpa ghost pillow
This process is very simple. I’ve created a printable pattern so you don’t have to worry about sketching or drawing a perfect ghostly shape. Once you print the pattern, you’ll tape it together, cut it out, and use it as a guide to cut two ghosts out of your fabric.
Once we have our ghosts, you will want to sew them together, fuzzy sides facing each other. You will leave a small gap so you can turn your ghost pillow inside out and stuff it with polyfil or another filling of your choice.
How do you make the face of the ghost?
There are several ideas that you can use to make the face of your ghost, and they will all depend on your skillset and whichever you find easiest. Don’t be SCARED though, it can be as simple as using a hot glue gun to attach felt pieces to your ghost face.
These methods include embroidery, sewing felt or other fabric on, or glueing them on. If you use a sewing or embroidery method, you’ll want to do this first before sewing your front and back together.
I tried embroidering the face on with a regular size 4 black yarn. I didn’t account for how wide the stitches would be and I ended up with something that looked like a sloth face. However, I did like the look of the texture, it looked like it belonged with the sherpa. If you go this route, instead of stitching right on the outline of the eyes and mouth, start further inside the circle to account for this space.
What Materials do you need?
Fabric
You will need whatever fabric you decide to use. This can be sherpa, flannel, minky, fleece, etc. You can use so many different fabrics for your ghost. The possibilities are endless. I’m excited to see what you come up with! You can tag me on instagram or facebook @stephgoesastray so I can see your work!
Polyfil or Filling of Choice
If you want your ghost to be fluffy, you will need to stuff it. You will not need very much. Here is a 1lb bag for ~$5
Printer, Paper, and Tape
This is to make your pattern. If you want to draw it yourself, you can skip this step!
Thread
I used white for the ghost body and black for the face. However, you can use whatever thread you want to match your fabric.
Yarn and Needle
(Optional) – You can use yarn to embroider the eyes and mouth if you want to try this approach. It makes for a fuzzy face that matches the pile of the sherpa.
Felt
If you don’t want to embroider, you can use felt to cut out the eyes and mouth. The felt can be sewed on the face or hot glued just as easily. You can use the pattern to arrange the shaped on the head of the ghost.
Sewing Machine
(Optional) – You can also do this by hand! However a sewing machine just makes things easier!
Fabric Scissors
You will need fabric scissors. The sherpa is super thick! The felt is also tough to cut precisely with regular scissors, so I highly recommend some good fabric scissors.
Pins
You will need pins to keep your work together and neat while sewing. I’m a lazy sewer and ill try not to pin my work whenever I can get away with it. This project, however, it was completely necessary! Sherpa is fluffy and kind of gets in the way if you don’t pin it in place!
Directions for Sherpa Ghost Pillow
- Start by printing your pattern.
- Cut the ghost shapes out of your paper.
- Place the shapes together so that the cross lines match up and the outlines of the ghost match up. The paper will overlap so that you can tape them together.
- Pin your pattern to the fabric and cut around it to make a ghost shape. Cut 1/4-1/2″ away from the edge of the pattern to allow for hem.
- Make your face, you may choose to have a face on both sides, but I only did one.
- If you want to embroider, you can pin the paper directly on the ghost and stitch through the paper until you have your outlines, and then tear the paper away.
- If you use felt, cut the eyes and mouth out of the ghost, leaving the ghost pattern intact. Use the eyes and mouth to cut shapes out of felt.
- You can use the ghost pattern to set the eyes and mouth on the ghost in place.
- Stitch the felt eyes on
- Place the two ghost pieces facing each other (fuzzy side in) and pin in place really well
- Sew around the edges leaving a 1/4″ edge. Leave a Space about 4″ open at the bottom so you can fill it.
- Fill with polyfill until you reach your desired loft.
- Stitch the bottom opening together.
Download Here!
