We built our own scarecrow at Prairie Gardens’ Haunted Pumpkin Festival this weekend and it was a hoot. Also, now I have a cool hand made Halloweeny lawn decoration. So here’s how to build your own scarecrow in three easy steps.
Step one: pick out clothes
This actually took us the longest – going through the piles and piles of cool old clothes. Should ours be little or big, guy or gal, winter or summer (we found a tempting bikini). We ended up with a sweet pirate print blouse and purple cords – a nice back to school outfit for Sally (we named her Sally).
Step two: make frame out of corn stalks and twine
Then we grabbed some cornstalks – two for the legs, one for the arms and tied them together with twine. I found some stalks with dried corncobs on them, which gives Sally a pretty nifty prairie girl feel.
Now here’s where you might need a buddy: we stuck one stalk down each leg then tied them together at the waist over the pants. This part is important or the pants will fall down when you put the top half on – trust us, scarecrows need belts. Then we tied the arm stalk on crossways and dressed her in her shirt.
Step three: stuff the body
Now stuff your gal or guy – kids like this part. Sally is nice and full with straw coming out of the bottom of her pants and sleeves. But everybody’s different, you can tie off the leg and armholes – you can leave your guy nice and skinny. You’re the creative genius here.
If you root through the piles, you’ll find pillowcases for good big soft heads, pick up a bag at the General Store or go headless like Sally.
After we set her up at home, I thought of trying to use a tomato cage in the shirt and a pumpkin head. Next year I think.
Tip: I knew we were going to build a scarecrow this week, so I brought two big garbage bags with me. I used one for her bottom and one for her top then we just rebuilt her at home.
Haunted Pumpkin Festival
After we made ourselves Sally the scarecrow, we saw a puppet show, picked out some pumpkins (including the coolest ice blue one!), ate pumpkin pie and checked out the animals and the pumpkin cannon (it’s loud and awesome).
The festival runs every weekend in October. The farm gates are open 9–6 on Saturdays and Sundays with entertainment starting at noon.
