Beautiful Boo

Hi everyone! It’s Cheri with Tinkinstitches, embracing the season of wood fires, orange leaves and all things pumpkin spice (you know you love it). October, itself, brings ghosts and ghouls and candy treats. But if you’re not into the scare and fear, how about a sweet cheery ghost to lighten the mood? With no wicked tricks here, you’ll find a simple project to satisfy your treat or treat goals. So let’s figure out what we need to get started!

You’ll find a few Clover tools incredibly helpful in your felt/embroidery projects. For one, the embroidery hoops are top notch and keep projects taught and tidy. The embroidery needles are always sharp and handy. The patchwork mini scissors are perfect for felt shaping and the water soluble marker is a favorite around here for pattern tracing. You’ll also need one large piece of quality wool felt, enough to stitch your ghost onto and create a backing with. So, something double your ghost size. You’ll need white or cream wool felt for the ghost and then small wool felt scraps in colors for flowers in leaves. (Wool felt holds up better to fine shaping and cutting.) Felt colors are up to you but I stuck with a more autumnal scheme with purple, gold and peach. You’re also going to need a pin back or a hair clip, depending on whether you’d like a brooch or a hair clip. Don’t forget coordinating embroidery floss, I used cream for the ghost, dark brown for the ghost face, golden yellow for attaching the flowers and green for the leaves. Once you have all your felt and supplies, you can download the ghost template here.

Start by cutting all your bits for assembly. The snips work great here because of the small sharp tip and the general size of the scissors, making tiny cut work simple and precise. Once you have all your pieces cut out, I recommend holding the ghost felt over the template and using a bright window to view the face features and trace them onto your felt using a water soluble or air soluble marker. Once this step is finished, pin your ghost to the backing felt (I’m using Clover heart pins). I secured my felt into the 5″ embroidery hoop for easier assembly.

Take three strands of the cream and start attaching the ghost to the backing felt using a running stitch. I kept the stitch length short so I could easily go around the curved bits. Once you have the ghost attached, use three strands of brown to stitch in the eyes and mouth.

Now take your flower cut outs and place them on the crown of the ghost, using the printed template as a general guide. Add the center rounds of the flowers and stitch through the round centers and the flower petals to attach the flowers. Use the an x pattern. You can see the guide in the photo below. Next, group the remaining rounds to the left of the flowers and attach those using a french knot stitch through each center. Once all three are done, place and stitch down your leaves, like below.

Now that your ghost is all fancy, remove the felt from the hoop and trim around your ghost leaving an eighth or a quarter of an inch, enough to complete a blanket stitch around the edges. Trim a second piece of the backing felt using the ghost piece as a template. You should have two pieces to stitch together now. But first make a slit for the hairclip to go into, or two holes to put the pin into. Cut a 30-34″ piece of coordinating floss, separate it down to three strands and start a blanket stitch to sandwich the pin or hairclip in between your felt.

Once you’re finished, make a knot in the back and slip your needle back into the felt at the knot and coming out about an inch away, careful not to go through the front of the ghost. Trim your floss and this hides your thread end. Congratulations, you’re finished! Nice and tidy, and nice and sweet. Celebrate the holiday with less blood and more flowers! (I also wanted to add that this ghoulishly delightful ghost is available in my Etsy shop as an embroidery pattern here.)

And to make it a little more fun, Clover has agreed to a giveaway for some of their great products and the ones I personally find to be the most useful for stitchers! Were giving away embroidery hoops, needles, a water soluble marker as well as some wool felt scraps, coordinating embroidery thread and a needleminder from my shop! In order to enter to win this bundle, visit the Clover Instagram page as well as the Tinkerellen Instagram page and become a follower of both, then simply leave a comment here that you have done just that and you’ll be entered to win! (Sadly, due to postal costs and delays this giveaway is only open to United States residents.) *Giveaway ends Friday, October 29th*

If you have any questions regarding this project, please leave me a note in the comments and I will do my best to help!