‘Boo to you, crows!’

So – do you want to know how to make a scarecrow?

First I scouted around to find a suitable outfit: an old business shirt of John’s, some maternity pants of mine, a pair of kids gardening gloves that were too small and a Sunday Mail Australia Day hat. Then I got a pile of newspaper to stuff into the clothes, an old pillowcase for the head, some felt to make shapes for the face and some wool for the hair.

Then I got the boys to start scrunching up newspaper.

Next – the head.  I filled the top half of an old pillow case with newspaper and tied it closed with some twine.

I cut out some felt shapes and used spray adhesive to make eyes, eyebrows and a nose for the scarecrow. I used some embroidery thread to make a smile. The boys thought I should make the face look a little more mean to ensure it scared the crows.

I then made some hair with yellow wool. I wound the wool around my fingers seven or eight times. Then tied the top together with another piece of wool, then cut the bottom to make strands of hair. I did this eight times to create a little bit of hair on either side of his head. If you want hair all the way around you just need to keep repeating this process. 

I sewed the wool hair to the hat.

Then the hat to his head.

I put an old broomstick through one leg of his trousers and up his body then started stuffing the clothes with newspapers.  Once the legs were full I tied the bottom of the trousers with elastic. I put another stick through the arms of the shirt and tied the wrists of the shirt with elastic when the body and arms were fully stuffed with newspaper.

I then sewed the pants and top together.

And stuffed the gloves with newspaper and poked them on to the end of the stick. I attached them around the wrist with elastic. 

Then my scarecrow was complete.  From here you just need to stand him up in your garden. I tied him to the fence but you can just as easily hammer a big post into the ground and tie your scarecrow to that.