“Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow

Halloween is a great time of year for fun and creative decorations like this “Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow. Pillows are one of my favorite things to decorate with due to the versatility. With each holiday you can just swap out the pillow cases with each pillow. This means you don’t have to set aside a ton of storage space for a lot of pillows, just the pillow cases which fold up nicely.

This “Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow was a fun design to make. I pulled together bits and pieces of designs from my collection of online crafting files, as well as a few of my own designs, and came up with this cute, simple pillow. This is an easy project to make with minimal layering of Iron-On Vinyl and a good place to start if you want to try your hand at making your own holiday pillow cases!

“Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow

Pillow cases are a fun and easy project to make with the Cricut machines. Depending on how intricate a design you use, they can be done fairly quickly and with minimal effort. If you’re new to Iron-On Vinyl, this is a great first project because it’s fairly simple without too much layering.

To cut the shapes and letters I used my wonderful Cricut Maker. This thing is a crafting game changer and I can’t say enough good things about it. If you’re not familiar with the Cricut, read my blog post about The Amazing Cricket Maker to learn more.

Don’t worry, if you don’t have a Cricut machine you can use scissors or a craft cutting blade like an X-Acto Knife. I created both an SVG file and a PDF file for the design – SVG for Cricut and PDF for non-Cricut. You can get both templates for free by clicking below:

Materials Needed to Make the “Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow

MAKING THE “BOO” CAT HALLOWEEN PILLOW

Making the “Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow is not complicated. It involves cutting out the various shapes and lettering, ironing them on layer by layer, and carefully peeling off the backing so that everything adheres to the pillow case. If you are using a Cricut to cut your design, continue on to Step 1. If you are cutting the design using scissors, skip to Step 2.

Step 1: Upload the SVG to Cricut Design Space

Download the SVG file through the links within this post and upload it into Cricut Design Space. The file will look like this:

STEP 2: Cut the Shapes and Lettering

Next, choose your desired colors of iron-on vinyl you want to use for the designs and lettering and cut per the Cricut machine prompts or with scissors.

NOTE: When cutting Iron-on vinyl, remember to turn on Mirroring when cutting the designs. If you don’t turn on Mirroring, the designs and lettering will be backwards when you transfer them to the pillow. To learn more about using mirroring with Cricut Design Space, check out this blog post.

PLEASE NOTE: If you don’t have a Cricut machine and want to cut the pieces out by hand, you can use the PDF file as a guide.

STEP 3: Weed the Design Pieces and Lettering

I cut all of the various layers first, then weed each layer one at a time. Iron-on vinyl is fairly easy to weed with the use of a Weeding tool and/or tweezers. I use this Weeder and the tweezers in this set (which also includes a Weeder) in all my Cricut crafts. They are a lifesaver!

STEP 4: Ironing on the Designs and Lettering

Preheat your EasyPress to the correct temperature and time based on the type of vinyl being used (see screenshots below). You can find that information on the Cricut Heat Guide page here by plugging in the requested information.

After I enter in my desired materials for this project and click “Apply”, this is what I see:

Start with your clean blank pillow case laid out flat on top of the EasyPress mat (seen below) or a towel.

Next, determine where you want to place the designs on the pillow case. Once you have the spacing determined (I usually lay all the layers out to make sure they all fit before applying the first layer), pre-heat the pillow case based on the instructions on the Cricut Heat Guide page (it’s usually about 5 seconds).

Once pre-heated, apply the base cat head layer and iron it on for about 3-5 seconds. After you’ve done the initial ironing for the base layer, allow it to cool for a bit. Once it has cooled, slowly peel away the vinyl backing making sure the vinyl is adhering to the material. If it is not adhering, press the backing back down and re-iron for a few seconds. Peel away the backing slowly and carefully until the backing is completely removed.

NOTE: When ironing something on so close to the hem, pull the hem up a bit to start so that you can get an accurate placement of the vinyl. You can see above I pulled the hem up about an inch so as to allow it to lay flat. This made placement and ironing on of the cat head easier. You will want to do the same with the cat paws.

Place the next layer on the pillow case, in this case the eyes and the nose.

Before ironing, place a sheet of parchment paper over the entire cat face. This will protect the base layer of vinyl when you iron on the eyes and nose.

Iron the entire cat face for 30 seconds so all pieces are fully ironed on. Allow the layers to cool and then slowly remove the vinyl backing.

Next, apply the cat paws. Iron each paw for 30 seconds. Allow the layers to cool and peel away vinyl backing.

Finally, place the “Boo!” letters in the middle of the pillow case. Remember to re-align the EasyPress mat under the letters before ironing them on. With this layer place a sheet of parchment paper over the entire design in case the EasyPress happens to touch the already applied designs. You should never let the EasyPress touch the vinyl directly. The parchment protects the vinyl already applied.

Iron this layer for 30 second. Allow it to cool before carefully and slowly removing the backing.

That’s it! Your “Boo” Cat Halloween Pillow is finished!

Where do I Get the SVG and PDF Files?

You can download the SVG and PDF files for this specific project by clicking below:

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS PROJECT? POST IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!

More Halloween Pillow designs to check out:

• October Thirty-First Spiderweb Pillow
• Polka Dot Pumpkin Pillow