Add spooky pops of color with these DIY Halloween Pillows with Iron-On Transfers. I designed four iron-on transfer designs that you can use for Halloween pillows, t-shirts or even trick-or-treat bags. It’s up to you! In this post, I’ll share how I used them on DIY Halloween Pillows. I’ll explain how to sew a simple envelope pillow and how to add DIY tassels. After that, we’ll use a Cricut or another cutting machine to cut out glitter iron-on vinyl in order to add a Halloween design to each pillow.
The FREE Halloween Iron-On Transfer PDF includes four designs. Here I used the “Happy Haunting” crow design and the “Scaredy Cat” design. Also included in the PDF file is a “Hocus Pocus” witch’s hat design and “Trick or Treat” pumpkin design. I hope you’ll enjoy using the designs for your different Halloween crafts (i.e. Halloween signs, treat bags, trick-or-treat bags, costumes, t-shirts, pumpkin decals, etc.). I look forward to seeing all the different ways you use the designs.
Materials
The instructions are for a 15-inch pillow cover perfect for covering a 16-inch pillow insert. You usually want to size down your pillow cover by one to two inches so that your pillow looks full once covered.
- One front panel (15.5″ x 15.5″) of cotton fabric in a Halloween color (I used a yellow pattern fabric and burnt red pattern fabric, solids would also work)
- Two back panels (each 15.5″ x 10.75″)of black cotton fabric
- Black all-purpose thread
- Black yarn
- Black embroidery floss
- Embroidery needle
- Cardboard
- The FREE Halloween Iron-On Transfer PDF File
- Black glitter iron-on vinyl
Instructions
How to Make an Envelope Pillow Cover
1: Cutout fabric per the dimensions above. You’ll have three pieces, a front panel (15.5″ x 15.5″) and two back panels (15.5″ x 10.75″).
2: With one of the two back panels, make a clean edge along one of the 15.5″ sides. Fold fabric 1/2″ and then 1/2″ again, iron flat. After that, sew the fold down to create the clean hem. Repeat with the second back panel.
3: Pin the right-sides of your front and back panels together. Do this by placing your front panel right-side up. Then place your two back panels right-side down on top of your front panel to create a square. Make sure the clean-edge of the back panels are overlapping in the center. Pin around all four sides.
4: Sew the pillow on all four sides using a 1/4″ seam allowance.
5: Before turning pillow right side out, cut the corner seams of your pillow at a diagonal so your pillow will have crisp corners.
6: Turn your pillow cover right-side out. You now have a pillow cover.
How to Make a DIY Tassel
I followed the basic instructions available on MarthaStewart.com. I adjusted my instructions below based on use on a pillow and using yarn. See their original post for detailed pictures and instructions.
1: Cut a winding board from a piece of cardboard. The cardboard should be twice the length of your final tassel. Therefore, for a 5″ tassel I used a 10″ piece of cardboard.
2: Wind your yarn around the winding board in tight loops until you reach your desired fullness. For my tassels, I went around eight times.
3: Cut an 8″ piece of embroidery thread. Slide wound yarn off your winding board. Tie the piece of embroidery thread around the center of the wound yarn.
4: Pull the ends of your embroidery thread upward while pulling the wound yarn downward. Using a piece of yarn, tie it around the wound yarn to create the “head” of your tassel. Tie the yarn in a knot. One piece of the yarn will lie down with the looped ends of your yarn while the other will lie upward. Cut the upward piece of yarn to the size of the “head” and tuck it into the “head” of your tassel so you don’t see it.
5: Cut the loops of your tassel to create the final fringe. Trim your tassel so that all the lengths are about the same. Repeat all steps three more times so you have four tassels.
How to Attach Tassels to Your Pillow Cover
1: Using an embroidery needle, thread both ends of the embroidery floss of your tassel onto the embroidery needle.
2: Attach the tassel to the pillow cover corner. Take the needle through the corner of your pillow cover and then sew a couple of stitches. Finish by tying knots. Repeat three times.
How to Add Glitter Iron-On Transfer
1: Download our FREE Halloween Iron-On Transfer Printable. Cut out one of the four iron-on transfer designs using a Cricut or another cutting machine. Make sure you select “mirror image” before cutting.
Note: If using Cricut Design Space, you can have direct access to my Happy Haunting Crow Pillow and Scaredy Cat Pillow projects. The links will take you to my projects set up in Cricut Design Space.
2: Iron on the transfer to the front of your pillow cover per the instructions on the iron-on vinyl package.
The pillows look great with our DIY Haunted House Pumpkin Centerpiece. It’s a perfect Halloween craft to make as a family. Happy Halloween!
Download the free print-it-yourself file used in this post
FREE Halloween Iron-On Transfers
If using Cricut Design Space, see my Happy Haunting Crow Pillow project or Scaredy Cat Pillow project.
