It’s that time of the year again. Autumn is here and Halloween is creeping up on us in all its glory! So I thought it would be nice to share a little halloween decoration tutorial. I decided to make little bats to hang around the house. They turned out very cute! It would be great to make a dozen and hang them in plants, on lamp shades, on your kitchen spice rack... You can use fabric scraps and make them all black or use some color, if you like. Let your creativity flow! Are you making new halloween decorations this year or are you all set?

A finished bat is about 5 to 11 inches in size. The wings are made of felt, as well as the bat’s ears, but you could use fleece as well, as long as it doesn’t fray. Felt gives the wings some stiffness, which is nice. If your fabric is too floppy, you can iron on some interfacing in between the fabric layers. For the claws, I used chenille stems (or pipe cleaners for the Americans) from my daughter’s craft box. The iron wire inside makes it easy to hang the bat wherever you want.

• • • 2 pieces of felt for the wings (10 x 4 inch), you can also use fleece but the wings will be floppier
    • 2 pieces of matching cotton fabric for the body (each one 4 x 4 inch)
    • Felt scraps for the ears (4 pieces of 2 by 2 inch)
    • Stuffing for the body piece
    • 2 buttons, beads or safety eyes
    • Contrasting thread for the mouth
    • A chenille stem/pipe cleaner for the 2 claws

The PDF pattern: download it here

Print the pattern pieces (1 PDF page). Cut out the 3 pieces. Copy them on the cotton and the felt. You need 4 ear pieces and 2 body pieces. The wings need to be cut on the fold. I cut 2 wing pieces and sewed them together. If your felt is thick and has some stiffness, you can cut just 1 piece. The same goes for the ears. If the fabric you are using is too floppy, you can also add interfacing. I suggest using fleece or felt because it doesn’t fray, the edges will be on the outside.

Stitch a little mouth and teeth on the front body piece with contrasting thread. You can do this with a regular presser foot or you could opt for a free motion quilting foot (or darning foot). The latter gives you more visibility but sewing a straight line is more difficult with this kind of foot.

Sew the 2 wing pieces together at the edge (all around) and add topstitching on the wings. The dashed lines on the pattern piece show you how to do this. Trim the edges a little if they don’t match up (like mine :-)).

Attach the 2 pieces of chenille stem at the paws of the back body piece with a hand stitch.

Attach the wing to the right side of the back body piece with a row of stitching in the middle. This image is from the bat I made for the video, that is why the wing is blue all of a sudden. I forgot to take a picture of this step with the all black bat.

Sew 2 times 2 ear pieces together and topstitch the edge.

Clip the ears to the front body piece, on the right side, match the edges and fold the inside of the ear a little inwards. Attach with a couple of stitches.

Need clips? We sell these fantastic sewing clips in our store :-)!

Roll up the 2 wings to the inside. Clip or pin the front and back body piece together at the edges, right sides facing. This is a little tricky. Sew them together all around from one paw to the other and watch out that you don’t catch the claws, ears or wings in the seam. Keep the rolled up wings between the paws. This part between the paws isn’t sewn right now. It is the turning hole and either way, the wings are in the way :-).

Turn right side out. Add the stuffing.

Close the area between the paws with a hand stitch. I used a ladder stitch to do this. If you don’t know how sew a ladder stitch, check out one of my older blog posts where I explain it step by step:

The final step to finish this little bat is to sew the eyes onto the front body piece. Tadaaa!

And now, your little bat is ready to find a nice place to hang in the house and be his cute and creepy little self! I’m very curious to know what you are all making for Halloween! It would be fun to get inspiration from you all. Do share your creations in our Facebook group or on Instagram!

Questions? Just send me an email an@madamsew.com and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can!

An
For MadamSew.com
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Download the Free Pattern HERE

Download the full tutorial HERE