Strawbyn Scarecrow Embroidery Pattern

Do you love scarecrows? Then you’re going to love stitching Strawbyn Scarecrow.

He’s September’s embroidery pattern and is perfect to add to your fall décor.

When I was drawing and stitching him, a story formed in my mind that I thought I’d share with you of one possible way that Strawbyn came to be.

The Making of Strawbyn Scarecrow

by Susan Flemming

Sally was so proud of her garden this year. It was the best she’d ever grown. They’d been eating salads from it all summer but it was only just in the last few days that the corn was ripe enough to start picking. 

Imagine her dismay when she looked out her kitchen window and spied crows descending on the corn patch. She raced out to chase them away but knew it wouldn’t be long before they were back.

She needed to build a scarecrow and fast!

Back in the house, she found an old faded pillowcase for his head.

In the mending basket… an orange blouse that needed several buttons replaced but matches could never be found..

Also in the mending basket was a pair of her husband’s favorite overalls. They’d been patched before but needed patching again. It seemed he was ever and always wearing holes in them.

A big button from her grandmother’s button box would do for the scarecrow’s nose. A needle and bit of yarn to make a mouth and she was heading out to the barn.

On the way out the door, she remembered to grab her straw gardening hat. Even though the days were getting cooler, the September sunshine could still give her a sunburn.

At the barn, she quickly stuffed the pillowcase with straw from the bottom of the straw bin… no need to open a full bale when there was loose straw to be used.

She tied some twine around the straw stuffed pillowcase, sewed on the button nose and stitched a mouth and eyes. Then she took a marker and drew on just a hint of a whiskers.

Next, she stuffed the blouse and inserted it into the overalls which also got stuffed full of straw. A few big stitches attached the head to the blouse and her scarecrow was ready to hang on a post in the corn patch.

But when she stood back to look at him, something was missing.

He needed a hat!

Off came her garden hat and onto his head it went.

There now… wasn’t he a handsome fellow. He was ready to go to work keeping the crows away from her corn.

She turned to go and get on with her day.

One more backward glance and the thought came that hubby might not be too pleased losing his favorite overalls, even if it was for a good cause.

Perhaps an apple crisp for dessert might make up for it. Yes… that did sound like the best plan.

The End

Strawbyn Scarecrow Embroidery Pattern

Materials needed to make one hoop art scarecrow:

• 12″ square of fabric
• 8″ wooden embroidery hoop
• Embroidery floss in colors of your choice

First, you’ll need to download and print the pattern (scroll down for the link.)

Note: Be sure to set your printer to 100% or no scaling in order to print the pattern at the correct size.

Next, trace the pattern onto the fabric square using a light source of some kind. A sunny window works well for this.

In recent years though, I’ve switched to using a Huion LED Lightbox.

Being able to trace on a flat surface makes for a more enjoyable experience. It’s more comfortable and saves on arm strain. I’m also able to adjust the brightness of the light to whichever level works best for whatever project I’m working on. If it’s within your budget I highly recommend one.

Once the pattern is traced, have fun embroidering it in whatever colors you choose.

If you’d like to make one like mine, these are the floss colors used to stitch my Strawbyn Scarecrow.

Please note: Two strands of floss are used throughout unless otherwise indicated.

His straw hat is done in stem stitch using DMC 676 Light Old Gold.

The straw sticking out of his hat, neck, sleeves and pants is worked in whipped backstitch in that same DMC 676.

Strawbyn’s nose and mouth are backstitched in black.

The outline of his face is backstitched with DMC 948 Very Light Peach and then a single strand of black floss is whipstitched around each stitch for make his five o’clock shadow. 

Backstitch his shirt using DMC 900 Dark Burnt Orange. The buttons are backstitched with tiny Xs in the center in DMC 434 Light Brown.

DMC 312 Very Dark Baby Blue in backstitching make his overalls with the satin stitched button done in DMC 317 Pewter Grey.

The top knee patch is backstitched with DMC 434 Light Brown. The bottom patch uses the same blue as the overalls. 

The wooden post that holds Scrawbyn up is backstitched using DMC 844 Ultra Dark Beaver Grey.

The corn tassels are created using DMC 3348 Light Yellow Green and a whipped backstitch.

Two different shades of green are used for the stem stitched corn stalks and leaves. On the left side is DMC 580 Dark Moss Green while the right side is DMC 581 Tangerine (I’ve mentioned this before but I think they’ve named this color sooo wrong!)

The corn cobs are stem stitched in the DMC 580 with the corn silk straight stitched using the DMC 3348.

Since I’m super busy packing up to move again, I wanted a quick way to finish this month’s embroidery so I used the same hooping method to finish this one as I used for last month’s Owain Owl Embroidery Pattern.

You’ll find the step-by-step instructions in that post.

To display your finished embroidery, you could lean it up against some multi-colored dried corn cobs.

Or you could perch it on top of them.

The pattern for Strawbyn Scarecrow pattern is available in my shop.

Please be sure to download the pattern as soon as you receive the email with the download link as that link expires after 72 hrs.

As well, please be patient. If a lot of people are trying to download all at once, it may take a while for the email to reach your inbox. If it’s not in your inbox within a few hours, please check your spam folder.

Be sure to save this fun fall embroidery pattern to your favorite Pinterest board by clicking on the button underneath this post.

And of course, I’d love it if you share it on Facebook and Twitter as well. 

I would be so pleased if you chose to share by clicking on one of the buttons below!