DIY Outdoor Witch Decoration How To

This DIY outdoor witch for our Halloween front porch is the start of something different at our house. I make DIY Halloween decorations for our front porch every Halloween and replace them with something different the next year. This year I decided to make Halloween outdoor decorations that we will keep and then add to every year. My favorite Halloween theme is witches and I am excited to show you how our DIY witch turned out.

This DIY outdoor witch needs to look realistic and spooky. I felt being life-sized increased her realism and spookiness, you could make one larger but I wouldn’t want one any smaller. Imagine a 3-foot witch beside a 6-foot witch, the 6-foot witch be more eerie and eye-catching.

Witch Decoration Supplies

It’s easier and quicker to start with a purchased inexpensive witch as a starting point. I purchased mine through Amazon to get a realistic face. Doing a realistic witch head with plaster or Mod Podge would take days and I didn’t want to take the time.

Being life-sized makes it easier to purchase accessories. Make sure to check out your thrift store’s Halloween costume section before purchasing new items. You may find an entire witch costume and various accessories you can use. You can even check out the women’s wear section and grab something black, black, and sparky or Halloween colored. The total cost was $65 to create this witch, similar witch props in Canada are five times that.

Here is my little witch out of the box. Her hair is two strands, and she is a bit too small to be life-sized….. yet. It’s a really good start.

DIY Outdoor Witch Tutorial

I recommend starting with the video. But here are the steps to take a hanging witch and turn her into an elaborate Halloween witch prop for your front porch

Step 1 – Paint an Old Chair

Give any inexpensive chair a paint job in a Halloween color. It’s fine if it’s broken and in rough shape, as long as it sits squarely and has a back on it. I chose black for my $5 garage sale chair. The chair gives you something to prop your witch on to give her structure.

Step 2 – Add the Stuffing for Witch’s Body

Begin by placing the witch in the chair and decide her placement. Take a black garbage bag and fill it with some stuffing, I used leftover polyester fiberfill but you could easily use scrunched-up paper as well. Stuff the black garbage bag until it’s about 6 inches thick and about 2 feet square for her body shape.

Use some old rags and make a second smaller cushion to hide behind her head. (I didn’t do this to begin with and added it later as a fix.) Add several zip ties to the top of the chair and the cushion to prevent your witch from sliding down.

Place the witch on top of the stuffing and tie the bag around her middle to hold the bag in place while giving her a waist. Tie the rope with a bow instead of a knot so you can adjust it later.

Step 3 – Make Witch Update Choices

The witch needs to be made larger, the easiest way to do this is to lengthen her where her legs should be. It didn’t need actual legs but a longer fuller skirt to go to the floor to cover where her legs should be.

The original witch was quite scary, to tone this down I added some sparkly and soft frills to her. I had to wait through the weekend for the thrift store to open but the waiting was so worth it, I was able to find everything I wanted plus a matching witch’s broom, for $6. I added a wig from the Dollar Store for $4.

Step 4 – Make the Witch Appear Larger

Besides the stuffing, a larger hat, longer arms, and a skirt that went to the floor were my to-do list for making her look larger.

Lengthening the Arms

Rather intimidated I started with the hardest part and just started gently prying her apart to see the possibilities and it turned out to be quite easy. As expected the witch is poorly made, the fabric on the shoulders was barely attached with little bits of glue. A small tug and off they came. The wire for the arms weaves through the wrist so I cut it off above the wrist and extended the arms with an extra length of wire. The first arm is long enough to sit on the chair, so I wired it in place over her finger. The other arm was lengthened to the same size and left free moving.

Hot glue the ends where you attached the wires.

Her arms were only an inch around. I used bit of leftover pool noodles from my Halloween candle project, I split one about 8 inches long and added it over her arms. You could also use old folded towels, or scrap fabric and small zip ties. Just wrap it around her arms and hold it in place.

Adding a Skirt

Instead of trying to create some sort of legs, I added black fabric to the witch making sure the fabric went to the floor. Using a needle and thread I gathered the fabric with large stitches and attached the skirt to the underside of the witch. At the end, I sprayed on some adhesive glue and gave her purple glitter on the bottom of the skirt.

Step 5 – Decorating the Halloween Witch

Have fun with this part, decorating her and watching her develop was so much fun. I knew she needed more hair, and some more hair, the witch had beautiful hair but not nearly enough of it.

Carefully remove the existing witch hat and set it aside to use as stuffing for her new hat. My witch’s hat was simply glued on, but I was glad that I removed it carefully as it took the back of her mask off. Her head was actually just a mask with a piece of fabric on the back.

Attach the Hair

The next step was to give her some extra hair.  I found a wig at the dollar store, and then cut the strips of hair into sections. On the back of the witch decoration’s head where the fabric was, I sewed the hair on, gathering it to add more hair to the back of her head.  The front section.

Add the Witch’s Hat

Stuff the top of the witch’s hat with the old hat, polyfil or rags. Just add enough stuffing to make the hat stand up. Once the hat is stuffed, hot glue it back on the witch’s head.

Step 6 -Adding Embellishments

I chose to add a sparkling ribbon to her hat and use the excess around her wrists. Then added ruffles. You could also give her some sparkling rings or long necklaces as well. The final touch was a sparkling witch broom.

Placing your Witch Decoration Outdoors

It’s cold where we live, and typically quite windy. This witch decoration can sit outside on our covered porch as seen below. Our witch decoration can withstand a good breeze as she is attached to a heavy chair, but I would avoid letting her get rained on.

Witch Decor for Outdoors Video

I am cold in a scruffy hoodie of hubs enjoying time in the garage crafting while he’s away for a couple of days. It was fun to put this witch together, and I have created a video tutorial of how I did it.

Storing your Witch Decoration

To store the witch I plan to remove her from her chair. Her hat is stuffed so that it won’t crush when packed away. Her body stuffing will be dismantled and I can reuse the stuffing and the garbage bag replacing them next year.

Everything else will be folded in arms over the front and then the bottom folded up to protect the face. She will fit into a plastic bin or box and then store it for next year.

Want to create this Halloween decor? Pin it to save it.

Other Outdoor Halloween Decorations

Halloween is my second favorite crafting season because it’s so playful, easy to be creative, and less fussy and perfect than other holidays. Here are some other ideas for outdoor Halloween diy decorations.