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It’s day 8 of our special National Sewing Month blog series. We’re so excited to share another great guest post with you! Remember, leave a comment at the bottom of this post (and all of our series blog posts) for your chance to win our mystery grand prize. Trust us, you want to win this one! Find all of our National Sewing Month blog posts here and good luck to everyone!
Today’s post is written by Maureen Wilson, from the blog Made by Marzipan. To learn more about Maureen and to find her full project collection, visit her designer profile.
Hello, crafters! Maureen here from MadeByMarzipan.com. I’m excited to celebrate National Sewing Month with you! Since Halloween is right around the corner, I came up with a fun holiday decor project to share. These stuffed bats look great fluttering in the breeze, or, you can make them into a bat bunting to haunt your home. Here’s how to make your own..
Supplies:
- Bat Template (click to download from MadeByMarzipan)
- Black felt
- Black thread
- Ribbon
- Poly-fill batting
- Rhinestones & glue
How To:
1) Begin by printing out the Bat Template. (Margins are included in the pattern, so there’s no need to scale it when printing.) Cut out the bat using craft scissors.
2) You’ll need black felt for this project. It’s important that you use felt because it doesn’t fray, so there’s no need to finish our edges. I got 18 bat shapes out of a half yard of felt, for a total of 9 bats. You can fold the fabric in half to cut out two shapes at a time.
3) Pin two bat shapes together. This will be the front and back of your bat. If you want the bats to hang, insert a ribbon through the center of the bat and pin in place. Leave the top of the ribbon long for pinning, or you can loop it and tuck the end between the layers for hanging.
4) I added three bats to my ribbon, but you can add as many as you’d like. Cut the end of the ribbon short so that it’s tucked inside your final bat.
5) Sew the front and back of the bat together, topstitching with a 1/4 inch seam and black thread. Leave the long side of one wing open for stuffing.
6) Fill your bat with polyester batting. Use a pen to poke the stuffing into all of the corners. Then pinch the opening together and sew shut. Repeat for the remaining bats.
7) Once all the bats are sewn, you can add eyes. Googly eyes will make your bat look friendly, whereas colored rhinestones will make it look spooky. I’ve chosen clear rhinestones for a more sophisticated look.
This string of bats looks fantastic hanging outside, where they flutter in the breeze. If you’d rather, you could use this pattern to make a bat bunting…
1) Cut out the bats, then insert a length of ribbon to one wing of two bats.Ā These will be the first and last bats in your bunting. Sew those two bats, remembering to leave part of a wing open for stuffing.
2) Now sew the bats that will go in the middle of your bunting. (I’m only putting one in the center, since my fireplace mantle is small. But you can make yours as long as you’d like.)
3) Once the bats are sewn, attach them by overlapping their wings slightly. Sew them together by topstitching directly over your previous stitches.
4) Finally, add stuffing to each bat and sew the openings shut. The bat bunting looks great strung across a fireplace or over a mirror.
What’s your favorite thing about crafting for Halloween?
AllFreeSewing
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I love making a display that all of the trick or treaters haven’t seen at any of the houses they have already visited. These bats will make a darling addition to my collection. Thanks for sharing.
Love Marzipan and her website. I normally put my normal lighted Halloween stuff outside, carve a few pumpkins, roast the seeds with spices in the oven and make my paper Halloween crafts inside. I love making die cuts and scrap book pages.
Last year we had few knocks on our door maybe we need more BATS.
It is great to find so many interesting idea to use for fall decorating, Tutorials are so easy to follow. Thank you, Mara
I haven’t decorated for Halloween in years as we don’t have many trick-or-treaters anymore.
Oh loving the bats! I don’t usually decorate for Halloween but I just might have to start!
Perfect for Halloween. I actually just decorate for fall–my favorite time of year. I use pumpkins and corn stalks etc.
Great ideas for the GRANDS. Their Mamas should like them also. Thank you.
those are too cute an look like they would be fun to make
Halloween is my favorite holiday for decorating! I’ve already been making decorations to sell at a bazaar at the end of this month.
very creative
I love anything with pumpkins, cute/funny/scarry.
My favorite thing about halloween crafts are the colors and textures I get to use! I love decorating with jewel tones and fall colors!
crafting for halloween always takes me back to grade school art class; remembering the paper bag pumpkins painted with orange tempura paint – ahh the good old days!
Awesome!
great project!!
MY FAVORITE thing about crafting for Halloween is that there are also Items that fit in for Thanksgiving-pumpkins-corn -cats (all year) not just the one day.
I can’t wait to make these nice bats with my 4 year kid, he’ll love to play with these ^_^
Very cute!
Carving the Jack ‘O Lanterns, baking the seeds and cutting up a couple of extra pumpkins for pies and breads! Not too crafty, I know, but, it is what I love to do š
These are so cute. I’ve made bats before,but never attached them like this.
I really don’t craft for Halloween. I occasionally make pumpkins for fall decorations (right now it’s knitted and crocheted ones)
I did lots of fun crafts when kids were around to enjoy them, but now I just did the jars ModPoded with orange tissue paper, candle inside sitting on my deck.
I’m just learning how to sew and this looks easy enough for me to make to decorate with this year! I love the bunting, and may even make an extra bat for my son to play with!
hehe nicee! though i dont celebrate haloween here in Indonesia, but I love to see everything cute made for haloween.
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even Count Dracula would be impressed!
Usually in the autumn, I’m busy cooking pumpkin to freeze, so I don’t do any specific Halloween crafts.
So cute – can’t wait to make a few.
I love crafting ATC’s for Halloween and swapping them with international friends. Unfortunately Halloween is not celebrated too much here in South Africa, so I can only drool at all the great decor pieces popping up everywhere online.
My granddaughter would love these bats!
I am visiting with my Grands next week and this will be a wonderful project for us to do together! Thanks so much.
We don’t celebrate Halloween but your tutorials are great. Thanks for them and the giveaway.
My favorite thing is the colors! Orange is my favorite, so it’s an excuse to deck the house outin my favorite color
Having my niece help me make things to hang around the house!
There isn’t much I don’t love about Halloween: for the crafts or costumes, I just enjoy it!
I love making things to decorate my front porch….one of my favorite “holidays”!
Love the bat bunting! I need to make me one!
Too cute!