Spooky Season Ghost Embroidery Design, Halloween Ghost Machine Embroidery Pattern, Instant Download

Ive made quite a few ghost designs over the years but this spooky season version keeps getting requests every autumn without fail. Its a portrait-format ghost, 2.64 inches wide, 3.5 inches tall, with a fun expressive face and a seasonal text element built right in. Eight thread colours, 10,395 stitches, density sitting at a moderate 174. That lower density is deliberate: it keeps the white ghost body from feeling stiff or boardlike on soft fabrics like fleece and jersey knit, which is where most people hoop this one.

Stick to medium cutaway behind on anything with stretch in it, and a tearaway on stable wovens like cotton quilting fabric or canvas. The ghost body has a smooth fill underlay digitised in my professional tool that transitions from the head into the wispy base, dont skip the topping if your fabric has texture or the fill will sink into the weave and look rough. Pair this with a dark base: charcoal, black, deep purple or navy all make the ghost figure and coloured lettering stand out without fighting each other.

My niece asked me to stitch this on her halloween sweatshirt back in september and I used a 75/11 ballpoint needle on the fleece without any issues at all. She wore it every friday in october and the design held up without pilling or distortion. And the key to that is good cutaway, not iron-on backing, proper sew-in cutaway that stays flexible through washes. Pick your bobbin thread to match your base fabric colour so any bobbin show-through at the edge of the fills blends in.

Stitch it on a hoodie front, a halloween apron, a seasonal tote or a candy bag. The tall portrait shape works especially well centred on a bag front where it has room to breathe vertically. Knowing your machine's tension settings on the white satin fills will prevent any puckering around the ghost outline.