DIY: Scarecrow

So here’s the thing. I hate being scared. I’m all about dressing up and having a good time on Halloween, but you’ll never find me at a haunted house, haunted corn maze, or haunted anything. I’m 25 and if I remember correctly have only been to 2 haunted corn mazes and pretty much hated them the whole time. So when my sister told me about how her friend’s dad used to dress up like a scarecrow and sit on the porch all scarecrow-like only to jump out and scare kids when they come trick-or-treating, I got that pit-in-my-stomach feeling. But I’m happy to inform you that these scarecrows we made will never come to life and will always bring happy memories of fall.

I feel like scarecrows just scream “happy fall!” And despite the 90 degree weather we are still having here (what the heck?) we were pretty excited to get this friendly guy on our porch to hopefully welcome the more fall-like weather. The plan was to all get together and make these cute guys, but the sick bug attacked two of our four families and it just wasn’t happening. But we think this would be a super fun girls night to bring together neighborhood or church friends and work on your scarecrows together. While you’re at it you should probably have some caramel apples and pumpkin muffins, right?

Here’s what you’ll need:

– plaid shirt & jeans (we used boys size medium)
– 2 dowels (3/8in x 36in for arms & 3/8in x 48in for body)
– string or yarn for lashing (grab your nearest boy scout and see instructions here)
– old gloves, shoes, bandana & hat
– burlap (24 in square) or old pillow case for the face
– buttons for the eyes
– felt for the nose
– permanent marker for mouth
– small fabric patch for knee
– stuffing, grocery bags or newspaper to fill the head and body with
– safety pins to attach shirt to pants and shirt to gloves
– glue gun and glue sticks
– small straw bale

Here’s a picture of what your two dowels will look like when lashed together:

You can really build your scarecrow however you please, but here are some helpful hints:

Make sure you have a small hole (the size of the dowel) in the pants for the dowel to go through. Then it will go through the back of the shirt and behind the head.
When you make the head, pull the fabric first from top and bottom, then from the sides and pin. That way you have a space for the dowel to slide through. Then add the eyes, nose and mouth.
Once you have the dowels connected, slide through the pants and put the shirt on the dowels. (We used a little hot glue around the lashing to make sure it stayed in place since we aren’t lashing experts)
Use safety pins to pin the pants to the shirt and the shirt to the gloves after stuffing.
Once the clothes are connected and on the dowels you can begin stuffing.
Use little styrofoam or peanuts to stuff the gloves with and then pin to the shirt.
Once everything is stuffed and pinned together you can add the extra stuff like a belt, knee patch, bandana and straw around the hands and neck.
Push bottom of dowel down into small straw bale so your scarecrow is standing or sitting.