How to Sew a Cozy Ghost Pillow for Halloween: Easy DIY Tutorial

Spooky season is back and I’m so excited to share this cozy Halloween Ghost Pillow tutorial!

A few months ago I had the idea of creating a ghost shaped pillow with embroidered eyes.. But doing embroidery on sherpa made me a little nervous (I know it’s totally possible), and I also wanted to add something fun rather than black eyes for my ghost friend.

Cutting out eye sections and sewing fabric onto the back was my answer!

The best part? You can customize the ghost entirely, want to change the eye shape? Add a mouth? Eyebrows? Go for it!

Once you have the technique down, you’ll be able to make all sorts of fun spooky pillows.

Let’s get started!

Supplies needed:

½ Yard upholstery sherpa (this has a thicker, firmer backing)*
1 Fat Quarter Quilting cotton (I used the Rainier Deep sea print from my new Moda Fabric Collection!) More fabric if you’d like to make an optional bow
1 Ghost Template (click here to print) Printed and assembled
A small section of stiff iron-on interfacing
Pillow Stuffing
Iron
Needle/Thread
Erasable marker

*Note on fabric: feel free to substitute with any non-stretchy fabric, or even quilted panels. If the fabric is thin, iron on an interfacing so that it holds its shape when you’re sewing the eyes. The sherpa I used had a pretty stiff backing.

Making the Eyes of the Ghost Pillow

Cut out the eyes of the ghost template.

Make sure you have two pieces of fabric that will fit the template (one for the front and one for the back). I just folded mine in half.

Start by tracing the ghost shape on the back of one of the pieces of sherpa using an erasable marker.

I wanted my pillow a little bigger so I traced about 1” around the black outline of the ghost.

Trace the eye holes, cut them out of the sherpa, being very careful.

Iron on the interfacing to the wrong side of the quilting cotton.

Baste the quilting cotton to the back of the eye holes, I used a sticky bag tape to hold it in place while sewing. You can use baste spray or even pins.

Using a zig zag stitch with thread that coordinates with your sherpa, zig zag around the inside of the eye openings.

I didn’t want my stitching to show much, so I kept my stitching on the sherpa with just a hair of stitching on the quilting cotton.

Trim off any sherpa fuzzies in the eye areas, and trim off excess quilting cotton on the back.

Making the Ghost Pillow

Layer the ghost top (with eyes) right sides together with the back piece of sherpa. Pin together.

Sew around the perimeter of the pillow, leaving a turning hole about 2-3” wide.

Cut off the excess fabric with pinking shears or normal scissors (for curves you may need to make small cuts in the seam allowance to allow the curve to sit naturally).