How to Make a Scare Crow

Scarecrows used to be made only to scare the crows from the fields. Now they are made for fall and Halloween decorations. They're not made that differently, except most people don't get the straw from their own farms. Ever since "The Wizard of Oz," people have viewed scarecrows as happy, caring creatures and they can't help but make everyone smile.

Things You'll Need

• Straw
• Pumpkin
• Flannel shirt
• Jeans
• Belt
• 1 10-foot 2 by 4 inch piece of wood
• 1 5-foot 2 by 4 inch piece of wood
• 2 small pieces of scrap wood
• Hammer
• Nails
• Straw hat
• Craft glue
• Needle
• Thread
• Craft wire
• Staple gun
• Post hole digger

Instructions

1. Decide where you want your scarecrow located in your yard and dig a 3-foot hole with post hole diggers. Then nail your 5-foot pole onto your 10-foot pole about 18 inches down from the top. Set aside.

2. Take a flannel shirt and cut off the bottoms of the sleeves and fray them up a bit. Cut a square or two from the pieces of flannel you cut off and fray the ends. Use spray fabric adhesive and put the flannel squares on the jeans to look like patches. Cut a couple inches off the bottom of the jeans.

3. Stuff the jeans with straw and have 8 or 9 inches of the straw stick out of the bottom of the jeans. In the back of the jeans, about 2 ½ inches down, make a small slit on both sides of the center seam. Put the belt on the pants but don't fasten the belt or the jeans yet. Set the pants aside.

4. Carve your pumpkin. Cut the top off of your pumpkin and gut it. Turn the pumpkin over and carve it upside down so that the open end is on the bottom. First give him an upside down triangle eyes and a right side up triangle nose. Then give him a big smile mouth. Using craft glue, glue on his straw hat. You can use U pins to back up the glue if you live somewhere where it's windy.

5. Assemble your scarecrow. Put the shirt on the cross pole and stuff the straw into the arms. Make it stick out the sleeves 8 or 9 inches. Then run some up and down to fill out the shirt and stick some out of the top and the bottom. Put the pants in front of the pole and run craft wire from the front, over the straw and through the slits in the back. Score the sides of the pole where the wire comes through and run the wire in the scores and twist in the back. Use your staple gun and staple the wire in place. Use a needle and thread and stitch the shirt to the pants in a few places. Button and zip the pants and fasten the belt. Let the shirt stick out on one side and tuck it in on the other.

6. Place the pumpkin on the top of the pole. Push it down hard to get the top of the pole to go into the meat of the pumpkin, but don't push it all the way through. Use the straw from the top of the shirt to hold his head in place. Put some up inside and leave some sticking up to look like a neck. Now put the pole in the ground and fill in with dirt and tamp down well.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want his face to light up at night, get one of those glow sticks that you bend and break and it glows for a few hours. Feed it in through his nose or eyes and drop it inside his head.