Halloween Pillowcase with Book Pocket

I am so excited it is finally October. I pulled out a special present I made for my oldest son two weeks ago. I LOVE books and fortunately he has picked up on this, and may just LOVE them more then me! We pull out books for each holiday and decorate his room. Halloween may just be one day...but we appreciate the 30 days leading up to it as well...or even more.

This year, I created a special pillowcase for my three year old. It has a pumpkin "book pocket" on the front of it. The countdown to Halloween begins. Each evening, I sneak a new book in the pocket before bedtime. We have an amazing collection of Halloween books that I have either bought at garage sales, purchased through Scholastic, or books that have been passed on to us from my mom (the teacher). This new tradition is already a huge hit!

I thought of tons of adorable fu-fu girls pillows...but I have a sweet boy. I finally decided on a bat and his name.

I am not a seamstress by any means. I do everything the "cheater" way. I cut out an orange pumpkin from some cheery orange polka dot material. I then pinned it to a piece of wax paper and zig-zag stiched around the top edge to give it a finished look. Then I carefully tore away the waxed paper.

I stiched the pumpkin, leaving the pocket opening on top, on the Halloween pillowcase I created. There are plenty of great pillowcase tutorials out there if you need a pattern or direction so I spared these details.

I just sneak a book in each evening, and bedtime is a lot more exciting. Here is us on the bunk bed reading our first book.

These are the wonderful Halloween books on our list:

(*16-23 are 0-3 age books and the rest are approx  age 2-6)

1. Monster Mischief by Pamela Jane

2. Pumpkin Town! by Katie McKy

3. Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever! by Don Freeman

4. Wee Witch Halloween by Jerry Smath

5. T. Rex Trick-Or-Treats by Lois Grambling

6. Sixteen Runaway Pumpkins by Dianne Ochiltree

7. Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper

8. I Like Pumpkins by Jerry Smath

9. Magic Matt and the Jack-O-Lantern by Grace Maccarone

10. The Itsy Bitsy Spider

11. The Halloween Play by Felicia Bond

12. Which Witch is Which? by Michaela Muntean

13. Say Boo! by Lynda Graham-Barber

14. Black Cat Creeping by Teddy Slater

15. Max and Maggie in Autumn by Janet Craig

*16. Halloween Countdown by Jack prelutsky

*17. Where is Baby's Pumpkin? by Karen Katz

*18. Spot's Halloween by Eric Hill

*19. Biscuit's Pet and Play Halloween by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

*20. I love you Little Pumpkin! by Sandra Masamen

*21. Corduroy's Trick or Treat

*22. The Cheerios Halloween Play Book

*23. Autumn Walk by Ann Burg

24. Boo by Robert Munsch

25. Halloween ABC by Sarah Albee

26. Little Ghost by Vivian French

27. Even Monsters Need Haircuts by Matthew McElligott

28. Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin by Rick Walton

29. Pumpkin Cat by Ann Turner

30. Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler

31. Scary, Scary Halloween by Eve Bunting

Do you have some Halloween favorites to recommend???

In case you missed last week...this is the no sew monster pillow pictured in the first photo.