Batty Bats - a Halloween Tutorial

Meet Bertie & Bella!

Due to an impending house move and all of the planning and organisation that goes with it, I have been unable to run Halloween Sewing Workshops this half term.

As I have said many times before, I love Halloween and all of the fun that goes with it. This afternoon I have had a creative burst of activity and taken a break from packing boxes to make this cute pair - Bertie and Bella Batty Bats For Halloween.

They are fun and easy to make and since I can't run a workshop later this week I thought that sharing a Halloween themed tutorial would be the next best thing. Here's how to make them.....

You will need:

• Small pieces of dark grey/black/grey and white felt
• Two small black buttons
• White and black embroidery thread
• The Batty Bat Template (the print out can be found at the bottom of this tutorial)

Step one:

Make your bat's face: cut two small white felt circles and sew on to the front of one of the body shapes and add two small black buttons. Embroider a mouth and fangs using back stitch and satin stitch - make his expression as crazy as possible!

Step two:

For the wings you can either have single or double thickness. I have cut four wing shapes and stitched two together to make the wings double thickness and less floppy. If you want your wings to flap - cut just two wing shapes and have single thickness.

Step three:

Pin the back and front body shapes together inserting the two wings in to the seams on either side. Sew around the outside edges making sure that you sew through all of the felt layers when you get to the wings. Leave a gap at the bottom of your bats body and add a small amount of soft toy filling. Sew up the remaining gap and your fabulous Halloween bat is complete.

You can add a loop through the top to hang your bat from - perfect for decorating the house this Halloween!

Here's that template: