Halloween Craftin'

I've been hard at work creating some Halloween costumes and decor for display at Fabricland. I was even featured in The Star Ledger, New Jersey's major newspaper!  My favorite quote from the article "She doesn't slash and dice her pumpkins. She dresses them. In lace. And sequins." Makes me sound so professional, lol. Anyway, I thought I would share some of the pictures the professional photographer took for the article. 

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

The mermaid costume is Simplicity 4043, which I found to be overly complicated, and the directions were definitely hard to follow. A costume should always have clear instructions, so many people are trying sewing for the first time at Halloween, and this pattern would definitely scare them away! 

We had the most perfect sequin fabric, that actually looks like scales up close. Sewing sequins is super easy, as long as you have a microtex needle. I embellished the tail with the sequins strands of my own design. Everyone asks how she walks, but as you can see there is a slit for your legs to hang out of. The bodice is made from purple taffeta, with a blue glitter tulle overlay. The secret to a good Halloween costume is a lot of trim! I used 4 different kinds on the bodice, all in purple. I also made the tulle puff balls to float over the mermaid like she is under the sea!

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

I made the wreath from one of those Styrofoam wreath forms,and just tied strips of black tulle. The witch hat is a cardboard one from Michael's, covered in shiny metallic fabric that i just glued on and ribbon and orange glittery ric rac (you know how much I love Ric Rac). The skull and the skeletons are from the dollar store. 

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

 Witch glam was the theme of this display, I decorated three different pumpkins to show the different things you could do. ALL SO EASY! this one is just different kinds of glittery and lacy trims, I used black and different metallic colors to keep in glam. The pumpkin behind this is just the silver sequin trim, glued in a spiderweb form. 

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

 This pumpkin I covered in black lace, by cutting a hole in the middle of some lace and just stretching it around, and glueing it to the bottom, with a scrap of black felt to cover the fabric on the bottom. And then just put a bird on it! All of these crafts are excellent for all those extra bits leftover from projects that are too good to throw away.

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

The pillow was super fast, I cut the letters out of leftover black fabric, then went to the sewing machine and just sewed them, and sequin trim to a square, and then made it into a pillow. The i is dotted with a skull and crossbones button. 

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

 This wreath came from my front door! I found my inspiration on Pinterest. Wrapped a form in yarn, and cut out leaves from felt. Then I stitched them on the machine to look like the stem and different veins. 

photo credit: Ed Murray/The Star-Ledgerhttp://photos.nj.com/star-ledger/2013/10/halloween_decorations_15.html

 This pumpkin is just made with the leftover sewing notions from the classroom, zipper and boning eyebrows are my favorite. 

This is one of those plastic bucket pumpkins everyone has laying around. I just took strips of leftover fabric, mod podged it to the plastic and then ric rac and a bow finished it off!