How to make a Scarecrow

7 years ago when my first born was just shy of 1 year old, we spent a day with Grandma making a giant scarecrow. Even though Evie was so little, she still had fun stuffing the scarecrow and placing his hat on his head. Our scarecrow started off without the stake. We had him sit on our front porch for the first two fall seasons welcoming guests to our home. Then when my 2nd born was a toddler we decided to add the post to him so he could stand proudly in the backyard. Every fall the girls get so excited to put Mr. Scarecrow out in the backyard. We decorate around him with pumpkins and mums and he even gets a spotlight on him so we can see him in the yard at night.

This year we decided Mr. Scarecrow needed a friend. So with all three kids around we made another one. This craft project cost me $2. You read that right…it was almost FREE by using materials we had around the house. The only thing I had to buy were 2 pairs of panty hose from the dollar store.

How to make a Scarecrow

Materials You Need:

Wood stake (approx. 1.5″ x 3/4″)
2 pairs of panty hose (1 for the arms and 1 for the legs)
Clothing: A long sleeve shirt, pants/overalls, and a hat (overalls are best, but if you have an old pair of jeans you can use suspenders to hold them up.)
Polly Fill or Craft Paper to stuff
Burlap
Glue Gun
Black Felt for the eyes and nose
Fall faux floral sticks for decorating your scarecrow’s hat and for its hands.

Steps to make your Scarecrow

The first thing you want to do is figure out how big you want your scarecrow to be. PRO TIP: The smaller your Scarecrow, the less stuffing you will need. So keep that in mind.

This is the perfect opportunity to go hunting around the house for an old pair of jeans that doesn’t fit anymore or a flannel shirt you’ve been meaning to donate. You can even go to Goodwill and find the perfect outfit for your scarecrow without spending a lot of money. For our new Scarecrow we wanted to make a Kid so we used some outgrown overalls and flannel shirt that one of my daughters wore the year before.

You will also want to pick out a hat. You can do anything here! We chose straw sun hats for ours but a baseball cap would be adorable too. Get creative with what you have on hand.

Building your Scarecrow. You will start by taking your 2 pairs of panty hose. You want to use these to fill out the Scarecrow’s arms and legs. For our original scarecrow we stuffed him with straw and it was SO MESSY (and left us all scratched up). It also took A LOT of straw to stuff him. This time I went the easy route and used poly fill. You can also use craft paper.

Stuff the panty hose to the length of the pants. Then slip them inside the pants. Stuff the second pair of panty hose to the length of the sleeves and slip through the inside of the shirt. Take the extra part of the second pair of panty hose and stuff so your scarecrow has a chest. You can tie it off so the stuffing doesn’t fall out.

Next cut a hole in-between the legs of the pants. Take your stake and slip through the hole. Set your pants/overalls on the stake. Make sure you leave enough room at the bottom for the stake to go into the ground and place the pants so the legs hang straight and don’t puddle on the floor. Take your second stake and slip through the arms of your shirt. Where the stakes cross use your screwdriver to screw together and make your Scarecrow sturdy.

Then it is time to make your head. Take burlap, a plastic shopping bag and some poly fil/craft paper. Stuff the plastic shopping bag with filling (to the size you want the head). Tie the bag off and then wrap with burlap. Using some sting tie the top of the head. Don’t worry about what it looks like because the hat will eventually go on top. With the bottom of the head loose, slip it on top of the stake. Tie the bottom onto the stake. Leave the bottom loose. and then cut 1 inch cuts all around the bottom. You can fray the ends a little bit too.

To make the face use black felt and a hot glue gun. I cut 3 triangles for the eyes and nose and hot glued them onto the burlap.

Finish the head with some hair. You can take some loose straw and hot glue to the top. We decided to make our little kid scarecrow a girl and gave her braided pig tails. We braided some faux floral sticks and then hot glued them on the head. Top your head with your hat. Tad Da! We are almost done!

To finish your scarecrow you want to add some faux floral sticks to the arms. This is so you can’t see the panty hose incase they are sticking out. Just slip them into the sleeves. You can also add some extra decorative pieces to finish your scarecrow. I added a sunflower to the hat and some faux corn and leaves to her pocket.

Last but not least. Set your scarecrow in the yard! We used a mallet to get our scarecrow good and steady into the ground. Then we placed a wheelbarrow near their feet and filled it with pumpkins and mums.

When snowflakes start to fall and it is time to start decorating for the Winter Holidays, you can just pull your scarecrow out of the yard and store him away until the next Fall season!

Love the idea of making a Scarecrow with your Kids this Fall? You can see the video steps in my reel on Instagram. Make sure to follow me there for more fun ideas and projects!