Stitch a Haunted Bookstore for Spooky Season

October 3, 2025 by Sarah White

This is probably a bigger project than you can finish before Halloween this year unless you’re some kind of speed demon of a stitcher, but when I saw it I knew I needed to share it because I just love it so much.

The Halloween Haunted Bookstore pattern from Creation Rack features three skeletons sitting outside a bookstore, enjoying their books while bats fly around under a crescent moon. It’s a scene I love because if the afterlife doesn’t include books, I don’t want to go.

The project measures 206 by 200 stitches and uses 23 colors of floss. On 14 count fabric it will come out to 14.71 by 14.29 inches, or 37.37 by 36.32 cm. The pattern includes measurements for other counts if you want to make the project a little smaller.

It only uses full cross stitches so, other than being a large project, this one is pretty approachable for stitchers of all skill levels. (I might add some back stitching to the skull on the far right, though, or stitch it on fabric that isn’t white so its head doesn’t disappear into the background.)

You can grab this pattern from Creation Rack on Etsy.

And if you’d rather stitch up a less spooky book store, they also have a cute Halloween bookstore that’s all fall vibes, with pumpkins stacked by the door and autumn leaves falling all around. This one is 200 by 196 stitches and only uses 18 colors. It would be 14.29 by 14 inches, or 36.3 by 35.6 cm, on 14 count fabric.

Either way you get to share your love of books, all things fall, and cross stitching all in one project. How great is that? These would be super cute propped on a bookshelf or next to a shelf during the fall. You could even make a themed book stack to sit beside it if you have some scary stories (or black and orange books) to display.

[Photo: Creation Rack}

Have you read?

Easy Ways to Fancy Up Your Biscornu

The cross stitcher behind the blog Sirious Stitches is quite into biscornu.

If you’re not, a quick primer: biscornu are three-dimensional cross-stitched objects with eight points, often with an indention in the middle that makes them look a bit like doughnuts without the hole. They can be just about any size and subject you can think of. They’re often used as pincushions but can also be seasonal decor or just decoration for any time of year.

I’ve got a collection of biscornu cross stitch patterns here.

Once you’ve stitched one or several (they are a little addicting) you might wonder what you can add to them to make them even more extra.

It very much depends on the design of your biscornu and the look you are going for, but Sirious Stitches has a great post all about some of the options you might consider.

I don’t want to give you the whole list because you need to go visit and see all of their great biscornu they’ve stitched, but one really easy thing that you can do with a lot of designs is take advantage of that center indent by adding a button, beads, silk flower or another embellishment.

This is great to do just with a basic button from your stash that coordinates with the design and colors of the cross stitching, but it’s extra fun if you have a button that’s on theme, such as a leaf for a fall biscornu or a flower shaped button for a floral design. Add a jingle bell to a Christmas pattern, or a charm if you don’t have a button that coordinates.

Just this one idea is sure to get you thinking about ways to embellish biscornu (not to mention other cross stitch projects) but head over to Sirious Stitches to see all of their ideas for embellishing biscornu to make these already fun projects even more fun.

Have you ever made biscornu? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]