This Halloween scarecrow is the perfect decoration for your household, porch, or yard. Make it look however you want; cute, funny scary, or even personalized to look like your family! This project takes about 20-30 minutes and costs less than $50. It’s best done with straw, but here we make it with cotton due to what was available.

Materials:

Plastic pumpkin
Straw bale x2
Cotton filling x2 (can be replaced with more straw if available)
Permanent Marker
Buttons (Optional)
Superglue
Scissors
String/yarn
Old T-shirt & Flannel (or old long sleeved shirt)
Jeans (or long pants)
Hat
Safety pins (optional)
Hot glue gun (optional)

We found most of our “crafty” materials (cotton, plastic pumpkin, straw, buttons, and yarn) at Michaels, though these materials should be available at a variety of different craft stores!). Other materials such as clothing items can typically be found around the household.

If you decide to use straw instead of cotton stuffing, use straw in place of stuffing in all steps.

Step 1: Glue Buttons to the Head for Eyes.

Super glue was used on the back of the buttons and pressed to the pumpkin. Hot glue would work just fine as well. You can opt to draw the eyes on with a permanent marker if buttons aren’t available.

Step 2: Create the Face

We used a black sharpie to draw the mouth nose and eyebrows onto the pumpkin. Have fun with it and get creative! There are many different alternative materials and methods that can be used at this step for personalization.

Step 3: Tie the Bottom of the T-shirt and Stuff With Cotton.

Simply tie the bottom of the T-shirt with your string and stuff to the desired amount of fullness.

If you opted to just use a long sleeved shirt, tie the ends of the sleeves as well & stuff arms in addition to the torso (you may then skip steps #4 & #5).

Step 4: Place Your Flannel Over the T-shirt.

In our scarecrow, we simply placed the flannel over the T-shirt and buttoned it a few times. If you would like the flannel to be open, you can use safety pins to secure it.

Step 5: Tie Ends of Flannel Sleeves With String and Stuff Arms With Cotton.

Step 6: Tie the Bottom Two Ends of Pant Legs With String and Stuff With Cotton.

Step 7: Tuck Torso Into Jeans.

Our T-shirt tucked into the jeans firmly, but if more security is needed here you can use safety pins again.

Step 8: If Cotton Was Used Instead of Straw, Stuff Straw Into Ends of Arms and Legs.

This step is optional, but adds a festive touch!

Step 9: Position the Head Where Desired and Balance It on the Body. Don’t Forget the Hat!

At this step we also sprinkled straw under the head before placement.

If you would like extra security for the head, try using hot glue the bottom of the pumpkin onto the shirt collar. If you choose this option, the straw will most likely not be able to be exposed under the head.