MissesStitches: A Scary Ghost Story

Friday, October 11, 2013

A Scary Ghost Story

Booo! Here is a scary ghost that I made yesterday. It was very easy, and I'm going to tell you how to do it, if you don't already know.

The key ingredients are

1. cheesecloth

2. Stiffy fabric stiffener

3. a form around which to fashion a ghost (I used a water bottle)

4. plastic wrap

Thanks to Marva at my local quilt shop, I made this simple ghost. She gave me my directions. I used a water bottle for the basic form. I then made a "ball" out of tin foil for the head, but you can use anything round-ish. I started with a small sea urchin shell, but it kept falling off the water bottle!

Cut an approximate square out of the cheesecloth. It should be big enough to fall over the bottle/form and drape nicely around at the base. I tried my best to keep the tin foil ball from falling off the bottle top. Marva told me that I should cover the whole thing (underneath the gauze/cheesecloth) with plastic kitchen wrap to keep the fabric from sticking to the base/form. Following the bottle directions, get all of the cheesecloth wet with the Stiffy fabric stiffener. (I bought my Stiffy at a fabric store. It cost me $8.99 for 8 ounces several years ago. I still have a little over half of the bottle left.)

Here is the fun part. Drape the damp cheesecloth over the form. Make sure that the bottom "skirt-like" part is draped around nicely. I did this on top of my washing machine. I suppose any counter top would work fine. Get all the folds evenly spread out at the base of the ghost.

Now you are going to have to spend some time doing something else fun while this dries. Go sew on another project. Take a walk. Clean out a drawer. (No, that's not what I did!) Have a glass of wine. (Closer to what I did. . .) It will take an hour or more.

When it is all dry and stiff, carefully peel the bottom part off the counter top, then gently pull the base (water bottle) plus the plastic wrap away from the cheesecloth. You will be left with a graceful, draping shape.

Now all you have to do is add eyes. I simply cut two small circles from black felt. Googly eyes would work well, too, I think, and I'm sure there are other possibilities.