DIY Moon and Bats Throw Pillow

After getting all of my Halloween décor up in our home, I realized we didn’t have a whole lot of decorations in our bedroom. I decided to add a fun little throw pillow to our bed so we would always have an eerie October moon! It’s an inexpensive and unique way to add some spooky charm to your home! Follow my step-by-step tutorial to make your own!

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Supplies:

1 yard of cotton/polyester blend fabric – I went with a dark grey textured pattern that I thought looked closest to the moon, but you could use plain white and sponge paint it with gray to give it that ‘moon’ look!

Stool, cooking pot, pie pan, etc.. to trace a large circle on your fabric (mine was a 13” inch diameter)

Ink pen or chalk

Straight pins

Scissors

Thread in a corresponding color to your fabric

Bat cutout/stencil – You can do a Google Image search for bat silhouettes and find one that you like or draw your own

Stiff black felt

Black thread or fabric glue (see tip below!)

Pillow stuffing

(1.) Start by folding your fabric in half, inside out, and smoothing out any wrinkles. As you can see I did mine the hard way and did it right side out, adding a bit more work for myself. Place your stool, cooking pot, pie pan, or stencil on the fabric, and trace around it. (2.) Pin all around the edges inside of the circle so when you cut it out the two pieces are even and pinned together. (3. & 4.) Again.. I did it the hard way, pinned, cut out, had to turn my fabric pieces inside out, and then pin again! Learn from my mistake and save yourself some time!

(5.) Sew around the entire perimeter of your two circles, leaving about 4-5 inches undone, and back stitching the areas on either side of the opening so it doesn’t unravel. Make sure you can comfortably fit your hand in the opening of the pillow. (6.) Now it’s time for the bats! I printed my bat silhouette onto printer paper, cut it out, and then traced around it on a thin piece of cardboard. I cut that out and used that so I had a sturdier stencil to trace around. (7.) Using a pen or piece of chalk, trace on top of your felt to create as many or as little bats as you would like. (8.) Cut out your bats and pin them onto the top layer of your pillow.

Hand-stitch the bats with doubled black thread down the center of the bats and secure with several knots on the inside of the pillow. Fold bats in half where you sewed so they have a more 3D look.

Tattooed Martha Tip: If you want to skip the tedious work of stitching on all your bats, you can use fabric glue. I use a brand called Unique Stitch (found at most craft stores or available for purchase in my Amazon store) because it’s the only one I’ve found that bonds fabric to fabric AND holds up through a lot of wear and tear. I recommend placing a small square of wax paper or scrap fabric inside of the pillow and behind the bat when you stick the bat to the fabric. This will prevent the glue from seeping through the fabric to the other side of the pillow and gluing the two sides together. Wax paper will be removable whereas fabric squares will not be, but it shouldn’t make much of a difference once you stuff the pillow.

Once all of your bats are stitched or glued on, stuff your pillow. Use a pencil or wooden spoon to push the stuffing into the far edges of the pillow. Make sure pillow is firm, but not overstuffed. Next you’ll want to slip stitch the open seam closed. Unfortunately I sewed mine at night and wasn’t able to get decent photos to show you what a slip stitch is for those of you unfamiliar, but I found a wonderful tutorial from the Crafty Sisters that tells and shows you how to do it. Scroll to about the middle of their post to find the instructions and photos! Once you sew up the seam, you’re done!

As you can see, Punk, made it extremely difficult to photograph the pillow on our bed without stealing the show, so here it is by itself! Haha