Categories: Decor, Halloween

Paint and embroidery combine to make this little trio of Halloween embroideries. Vinyl stencils make painting simple shapes on the fabric simple. Then you can add outlines and little details with embroidery. A link is included for patterns for a pumpkin, witch hat, and a bat flying in front of a full moon but you could use this method with any simple shape. An painted wooden frame finishes the project. These are a quick and easy way to add a little more Halloween to your decor.

What you need to make this project

Materials: Smooth Fusible Fleece Interfacing

Supplies: 1/4 yard white fabric; embroidery thread in black, orange, green, yellow, purple; embroidery needle; Wooden frame with a 3.7"-4" square opening; DecoArt Americana Decor Chalky Finish Paints in Heritage, New Life, and Carbon; DecoArt SoSoft Fabric Paint in Lamp Black, Cadmium Orange, Bright Yellow, Ultra White, and Transparent Medium; foam paintbrushes; Scissors; Cricut Explore or other vinyl cutting machine; adhesive vinyl

Instructions

Step One

First prepare your frames by painting them in your desired colors. The three samples were painted in Heritage (orange frame for pumpkin), New Life (green frame for witch hat), and Carbon (black frame for bat). Set them aside to dry.

Step Two

Cut your fabric into 3 pieces a few inches larger than the finished size of 4″ square. Cut 3 4″ x 4″ squares of Smooth and iron on the back of your fabric. This gives you a more stable base for embroidering and makes it so that you will not see your threads through the fabric.

Step Three

Next make your stencils by cutting them with a Cricut Explore or other vinyl cutting machine. If you are using a Cricut here is the Design Space file that I used. When you cut them be sure to space them far enough apart on the cutting mat that you can have plenty of space around each one to use them as stencils. Once you have your designs cut out cut them apart and peel out the shapes (the opposite of what you would normally do since this time the actual shape is what you are weeding out).

Step Four

To stencil on your fabric peel off the vinyl stencil and stick it to front of your fabric, centered over the fusible fleece on the back. The pumpkin and the hat are each only one piece so you can just stick it on. To make the bat first put on the moon, paint, peel off and let dry, then stick on the bat and paint that one. Carefully paint over your stencil with the desired color. Black for the witches hat and the bat, orange for the pumpkin, for the moon I did not have a light enough yellow so I mixed some primary yellow with white and transparent medium to get a lighter color. After you put the paint on you can carefully peel up the stencil and let dry.

Step Five

Once the paint is dry you can start stitching. Stitch around all of the shapes with a matching color and then add any other details that you want. I added a stem on the pumpkin and band on the witches hat.