Spooky Ghost Embroidery Tutorial + Pattern

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to prepare for, which means I get to make lots of fun and spooky embroidery designs! In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to embroider a simple ghost. The tutorial is of course free, but I also have an accompanying flying ghost embroidery pattern available for purchase if you’d like to follow along and make the whole embroidery. But if you’re simply looking for some inspiration, that’s fine too!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase an item.

Supplies Needed

• Embroidery hoop – available on Etsy
• Embroidery floss – available on Amazon
• Linen or cotton fabric
• Bohin chalk pencil (great for dark fabrics) – available on Amazon
• Embroidery scissors
• Flying Ghosts embroidery pattern (optional)

Flying Ghosts Pattern

This downloadable PDF comes with everything you need to know to complete the pattern.

• color suggestions
• how to start and end stitches
• traceable design
• step by step photos with instructions
• embroidery stitch diagrams
• how to finish the embroidery hoop

How To Embroider A Ghost

Ghosts are fun to draw because you can draw them pretty loosely since they’re generally pretty “flowy”. I like to draw two ovals for the eyes and a little circle for the mouth. I like to mix it up a bit, so sometimes I’ll draw them with or without arms. For the bottom of the ghosts, I like to draw a tapered shape or draw folds of fabric. I couldn’t pick one way so I drew them both ways for the pattern in this tutorial!

Transferring the Design

You can use whatever color fabric you want, but I think that darker fabric looks nice when you’re using light colored thread. If you are using dark fabric, you’ll want to use a chalk pencil or a white water soluble pen.

Grab your drawn or printed out design and trace it onto the fabric using a lightbox, iPad, or sunny window.

Stitching The Ghost

To stitch a simple outlined ghost, you can use the back stitch. Any of these outline stitches work well too. I used 6 strands of thread for the outline and 4 strands for the eyes and mouth.

This method is relatively straight forward, however circles can be a bit challenging to get just right. Check out this post that has some tips for stitching a perfect circle!

Another fun way to stitch a ghost is by filling it in. You can use whatever fill stitch you want, but this particular ghost used the satin stitch and chain stitches.

More Ghost Embroidery Patterns

Check out even more cute ghost designs that are available for purchase and download!