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Sew Some Cute Fleece Gravestone Pillows for Halloween

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Sew Some Cute Fleece Gravestone Pillows for Halloween

Here’s a fun Halloween decoration you can make for your house.  It’s a fleece gravestone pillow.  A Girl and a Glue Gun has a tutorial and free cut file you can use to make one (or several).  These would be so cute sitting on a front porch bench or swing!  They’d also make fun Halloween accents for a living room sofa or side chair. 

These fleece gravestone versions are a softer fluffier version of the fake gravestones you see people decorating their yards with at Halloween.  You know, the ones that are either Styrofoam or painted wood, with funny Halloween puns in the names or phrases painted on the fake headstones.  But you’ll find these fleece gravestones on a bench or a sofa rather than scattered around the yard.

The free pattern at A Girl and a Glue Gun includes cut files with 6 different designs with cute Halloween puns.  Or use the blank headstone cut files and add your own text with your cut file software.  There are also free cut files with favorite phrases from Harry Potter, Hocus Pocus, Clue, BeetleJuice, and one from Haunted Mansion. 

All you need is some gray or gray/white fleece, a bag of stuffing, and then some Heat Transfer Vinyl to add the headstone details.  There’s no actual sewing pattern needed.  The cut files serve as the pattern.  Just apply the Heat Transfer Vinyl to the fleece, and then cut around the HTV design to get your headstone shape.  Easy peasy. 

The only difficult part of this project is deciding which of the cute headstone designs you want to use!

Go to A Girl and a Glue Gun for the sewing tutorial and free cut file.  The free cut file comes in SVG, PNF, JPEG, and DXF formats.

[photo credit: A Girl and a Glue Gun]

Have you read?

My Great Fabric Flea Market Experiment – Should You Sell Your Fabric Stash?

You know that moment when you open your fabric cupboard and it groans at you? Yeah. That was me last month. After years of cheerful hoarding (“Ooh, this linen will be perfect for… something!”), I’d reached critical mass. My stash had officially become a fire hazard and my husband said no more fabric. 

So I did something radical: I loaded up my car with unloved fabric and took it to the local flea market. No fancy booth, no display—just me, my boot (trunk for my US friends), and a handwritten sign that said “FABRIC – MAKE ME AN OFFER.”

What followed was equal parts hilarious, heartwarming, and mildly chaotic.

The Good, The Bad & The “Wait, What?” Moments

The Bargain Hunters

Within minutes, a woman in a neon pink sunhat descended on my car like a fabric-hungry hawk.

Her: “Is this silk?” (Holding up very obviously cheap polyester)
Me: “Uh… no?”
Her: “I’ll give you 50p.”
Me: “Sold.”

Turns out she makes carnival costumes and needed “anything shiny.” Godspeed, glitter queen.

The Emotional Connection

One lady nearly teared up over a scrap of 90s Laura Ashley floral.

Her: “My mum made my wedding dress from this exact print!”
Me: “Take it. It’s yours.”
Her: “But I don’t even sew!”
Me: “Then frame it and yell at it occasionally like it’s your mother-in-law.”

She left cackling. Mission accomplished.

The Unexpected Haggler

A very serious 8-year-old approached with a £1 coin and the negotiating skills of a Wall Street broker.

Him: “I need fabric for my guinea pig’s birthday party.”
Me: “That’s… specific.”
Him: “He likes blue.”

Obviously I gave him ALL my blue scraps plus a ribbon for the guest of honor. Best sale of the day.

The Surprising Joy of Letting Go

Here’s what shocked me: I didn’t miss a single piece. Not the “I might use this” chiffon. Not the “too nice to cut” Japanese cotton. Watching people light up as they found their perfect project fabric? That was the real dopamine hit.

  • The quilting club ladies who squabbled over my batiks like seagulls over chips
  • The art student thrilled to find cheap muslin for her sculpture project
  • The retired tailor who tutted at my folding skills but bought 5m of wool “for teaching the grandkids”

Every piece went to someone who’d actually use it—no more guilt-tripping me from the depths of my stash cupboard.

 

What I Learned (So You Can Do It Too)

  1. Price Everything at “Please Just Take It” Levels
    • My pricing strategy: “Would I rather have £3 or closet space?”
  2. Embrace the Chaos
    • Let people rummage. Half the fun was watching two strangers bond over the same floral cotton.
  3. Bring Backup
    • Shoutout to my friend who brought a flask of tea and periodically hissed “That’s vintage, charge more!” like my fabric pimp.
  4. Take Pictures
    • For every sad “I never used this” moment, I got three “look how happy this makes someone” moments. Worth it.

The Aftermath

My car is lighter. My sewing room breathes easier. And somewhere out there, a guinea pig is living his best blue-fabric-life.

Will I stop buying fabric altogether? Don’t be ridiculous. But now I ask: “Will I love this enough to keep it forever, or is this a future flea market treasure for someone else?”

Your Turn:

  • Could you sell your stash, or does the thought make you hyperventilate?
  • What’s the weirdest fabric purchase you’ve ever made? (I once bought 10m of glow-in-the-dark satin. Why? No one knows.)
  • Should I make this a yearly tradition?

Spill your stash confessions below – and if you’re local, watch out for my boot sale sequel: “Notions I Bought For Hypothetical Projects” coming this autumn…

(P.S. For those asking – yes, the guinea pig’s party was a success. He wore the ribbon as a cape.)