Custom Halloween Pillows

A while back, I fell in love with this pillow.  It was on my list of Halloween crafts, but I just hadn't found the right template for my oversize couch pillows (remember them from this?). 

Flash forward a few weeks, and I found the above skeleton sketch in the trash!  Little E had drawn it to carve on her pumpkin, but didn't like it after all.  I pulled it out, enlarged it on the copier and turned it into a felt applique for the pillow cover.  Instead of a blanket stitch, I made coordinating felt piping (see here for the how-to).  I didn't have to worry about cutting on the bias because the felt is stretchy enough with the straight cut.  I basically followed these directions to make the pillow. 

With one pillow done, I was inspired to cover the other two in the same fashion.  Little E supplied the ghost.  Little A was more hesitant to draw on demand, so I found one of her drawings of a happy face and turned the hair into a stem.  Can you keep a straight face when you look at him?

 

I'm so excited to have festive, custom pillow covers for the Halloween season.  They are even more special because they are based on my girls' art work.  I know we'll have fun pulling them out every year and remembering their 4 and almost 7 year old versions of these Halloween classics. 

 

 

 

Halloween wreath, take two

 

 

A few weeks ago, I shared this wreath, with some thoughts on a second version.  Miracle of crafting miracles, I actually made a second version!  

 

 

Same grapevine wreath, but different paint.  This time, I used Rust-Oleum American Accents Ultra Cover Gloss in Real Orange.  I was really happy with the color, shine and coverage, even with the first coat. 

 

For the flowers, I loosely followed this tutorial.  The cream and yellow flowers were made with 2 1/2" circles, while the smaller gray ones were made with 1 1/2" circles.

 

I cut a simple 3" strip of felt with this and tied it to the top with a simple overhand knot. 

 

Except for my uber-procrastination, this project would have taken about a night.  I think I might be slightly addicted to this spray paint/wreath/fabric flower wreath project.  Don't be surprised if you see a few more (dozen) in the future! 

 

What are you doing to decorate for Halloween?  If you are looking for some other fun, simple projects, check these out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Falling into Fall: Halloween Wreath

It's the first day of fall!  For us New Englanders, this means the promise of apple picking, leaf peeping, and, of course, Halloween! 

As an early house-warming gift for a friend, I made this Halloween wreath.    A simple grapevine wreath spray painted with Krylon Pumpkin Orange Interior and Exterior Decorator Paint (took a few coats to get in all those nooks and crannies!).  I followed this tutorial to make the flowers - altering the length and width of the fabric strips for the various sized flowers.

Between the paint and rolled flowers, it only took an evening.  I love projects like these - quick, simple, uses materials on-hand - and yields a beautiful result!

Now I have to go out and make more for myself!  I have a few other flower styles I want to try - maybe black, gray and white felt? 

What's your favorite part of fall?

 

 

Candy Corn Bunting tutorial

For this week's installment of Bias Tape Tuesdays, we are making something so easy and festive, and it's a great use of bias tape - the holiday bunting! 



If you are looking for a quick project to add a little Halloween spirit to your home, look no further!  With a few cans of spray paint, some burlap fabric and your homemade double-fold bias tape, you can whip this up in no time (don't forget the candy corn for inspiration and crafty energy!).



1. Decide how big you want your triangles - mine are 6 1/2" sides x 5 1/2" base (the part that gets sandwiched in the bias tape).  Cut as many as you want for your bunting.  Then, using painters tape, tape off the top and bottom.



2. Find a safe spot to paint the fabric.  I taped mine down on craft paper outside. 

3.  Spray away!

4.  When dry, peel the tape.  Almost looks good enough to eat!

5.  Once the orange paint is dry, tape over it and spray the top point white and the bottom portion yellow.  (I was using burlap already in my stash.  In retrospect, this would have worked better with white duckcloth - then I wouldn't have to spray the top white!)

6.  Once dry, peel the tape and reveal your burlap candy corns.  Make coordinating double-fold bias tape following this tutorial.  Mine is 1/2".   I love how the fabric I found has the yellow and orange stripes to match the candy corn pattern (and I managed to find it while the 3 year old was running around hiding in Joann's).

7.  Sandwich your burlap candy corn in between the folds of the bias tape.  Pin in place.

I spaced mine about 1" apart and left an ample amount of bias tape on either end for hanging.



8. Starting at one end, start sewing, making sure to enclose all points of candy corn in the bias tape.  Continue sewing to other end.

 

That's it!  A beautiful, easy decoration for Halloween!

 

 

Hang it up, admire your craftiness and eat some real candy corn while you do! 

 

Another bunting

It's almost Halloween - hooray!  I don't know what it is about this holiday that always has me a bit giddy.  We are definitely not the family to recreate a graveyard in our front yard or go to town carving pumpkins.  But, I love my Halloween decorations that come out of the box each year, and have been enjoying creating a few new ones this year. 

First up, another bunting/garland.  I made my first appliqued bunting for little A's birthday.  I thought I would do another very similar but with square panels instead of triangles (it was kind of tricky fitting and centering the letters on the pennants).  I had planned to sew orange pom poms to connect all the letters but then saw the orange rick-rack and went with that.  After seeing an old post on Made by Rae, I decided to use the tiny black rick-rack to make little tags instead.

All in all, I like the look of this, but, let me tell you:  it is NOT easy to slide tiny rick-rack along a larger rick-rack length.  And....if you want to get a photo of your completed project, don't do it on a windy day - these letters were flipping around all over the place!  (Where I actually hang the bunting inside is in our stairwell - the light is really tricky for getting a good photo.)

Also, if you have a dog, you might want to keep him inside for your outdoor photo shoot or he might grab the bunting and run for it, causing a tangeld, twisted mess (not that MY dog did that...wait, yes he did.  Sigh...)

On a last, wonderfully positive note:  I found a new product that I love, love, love - Sulky Temporary Spray Adhesive.    Not using iron-on fusible web makes me feel a bit like a cheater, but it was soo easy to simply spray, stick and sew!

Happy Halloween!