Felt Halloween Crafts: Easy Projects for Festive Fabric

Crafters who use felt know that it can be one of the easiest and more enjoyable fabrics available. Felt is soft and can easily be manipulated into any object you want; all you have to do is supply your imagination and there are countless objects you can create. Here some simple ways to create your own Halloween decorations using felt and a couple of other materials that can be found at any craft store if you don't already have them at home.

Ghosts: To make a ghost all you have to do is look online or in a book for the basic outlining of a ghost. The size of your ghost does not matter. The nice thing is that your pattern doesn't have to be exactly as you see it; you can make your own outlining any way you wish. Tracing paper can help you make a pattern but it is not needed. Cut your preferred ghost outline out of white felt. I cut two identical patterns out so I can sew them together. You can either cut a single or double pattern. Whichever you choose, you can use buttons or simple embroidery thread, color is up to you, to make eyes, nose, mouth or any other embellishments. Doubling your pattern and sewing the two pieces of fabric together is great because you can fill your finished ghost with cotton, beans, rice or flour. These are just a few ideas for you to try. We have filled up our ghosts with rice and beans and have a 'ghost' toss the kids can do for prizes!

Pumpkins: What would Halloween be without the traditional carved pumpkin? Pumpkins are usually orange in color but when you are creating the sky is the limit! I have made black pumpkins with an orange background. Create your pattern either in your mind or on paper and cut out the desired pattern. With felt, using two different colors can really be nice. I cut out my single orange pumpkin and 'carve' out the eyes, nose, and mouth and place it on a black piece of fabric. You can either glue your black fabric on cardboard or cut out two pieces of fabric to create a pillow. I usually make sachets for family and fill them with pumpkin spice potpourri. Use any desired color embroidery thread to make the veins of the pumpkin and this will secure your decoration on your background. Put a string in it at the top and allow the kids to hang wherever they want. Be creative, use glue, glitter, more embroidery thread to create your own personal pumpkin greeting for guests!

Decorated bean bags: These are the easiest and are fun for the kids to make. Let them pick out their favorite colors of felt and cut out any shape you want. Sew them together with the good sides (if you decorate sides beforehand) on the inside and after sewing around three sides, and part of the fourth, leave enough room to turn your bean bags right side out. Then fill with beans, rice, flour or anything you have on hand. You can decorate with fabric markers, my favorite, or glitter on glue, sew on buttons, or you can even sew or tacky glue on Halloween decorations from Jo-Ann Fabrics or Michaels. We use our 'bags' of all shapes to play a 'guess how much the bag weighs' game. The winner gets a door prize!

Gift or grab bags: Another easy project idea that the kids can do. We cut out felt pumpkins, ghosts, cats, and any other Halloween pattern we can think of and literally glue these on paper bags. The kids love to glitter the bags so we let them create their own bags, then we use a hole punch and punch out two evenly spaced holes for ribbon to go through. Get some candy, fill your bag, tie off with the desired ribbon, and give them out to your trick or treaters. You can also use these grab bags for 'door prizes' in your ghost or bean bag toss.

Felt is so easy to use these are just a few ideas for you to try. You can buy felt rather cheaply at any fabric store and you can get even more when it is on sale. You'll notice that there are so many beautiful colors at your disposal. We mainly use the greens, oranges, whites, and blacks, but there's no limit to what you can do with felt, especially for your Halloween fun!