Directions for Making Halloween Scarecrow Babies

Take two sleepers (if you don't have some on hand that you can spare, you can get a couple at Salvation Army or Goodwill, just don't borrow them hoping to return them in the same condition, as leaves can stain clothing) and stuff them with leaves. Make sure you do it uniformly, and don't forget the feet of the sleepers. Stuff leaves down the sleeves, as well, down to the wrist area. When you are done doing this, or while your youngster is doing this, take the 1/2 yard of fabric and cut it in two, so that you have two pieces that are both 1/2 yard wide.

Fold these fabric pieces into halves, then quarters, and then eighths, and then again, so that it looks like a pie wedge. Cut a small slit (make sure you go through all the layers, though) towards the edge of the fabric. These are lacing holes that you are making, and will be used to tie the face up in the back so that the leaves will not fall out of the heads of the baby scarecrows. Lace the yarn or string through the holes, and then lay it back down. Lay a handful of leaves in the center, and gather the ends of the yarn or string up a bit. Stuff more leaves inside until you get it how you want it. More leaves seem to work better for the faces than it does for the bodies (sleepers). Gather up the strings completely, and tie. This is the back of the head, and opposite the face.

Draw the face on the fabric, using the face crayons. Place on top of the sleepers, on face per body, and sit them in the tub or stroller. You might need to prop them up against something if you use a tub instead of a stroller.

Here are a couple of hints for you. Sleepers with zippers work much better than sleepers with snaps do. The type of fabric the sleepers are made of doesn't matter much, but you do want them to have feet. Make sure you don't have any sticks in the leaves, especially the ones used for stuffing the heads. An exception to this would be if you were using the stick to give the baby scarecrow some sort of stiffness, maybe so that the baby scarecrow can wave, or even stand up. Another hint is to use stretchy fabric for the head. I used swimsuit fabric that I had left over. Swimsuit liner fabric would be flesh colored, but for that ghostly effect, use white.

The picture here is of the two scarecrow babies my son and I did for Halloween 2007.