Don McCunn's Blog

Making a Ghost for Halloween

October 23, 2009 on 2:26 am | In General Info | No Comments

Creating hand crafted decorations for the holidays can be great fun and a rewarding experience. You might want to try the instructions below to create a 7″ tall ghost that glows in the dark.

I feel fortunate that when I learned to sew I also learned how to make my own patterns. I find the process of creating custom patterns extremely gratifying. I have been sharing my passion for pattern making through my book How to Make Sewing Patterns for 36 years now.

Two years ago I started teaching pattern design through my own online school, Patternmaking with Don McCunn. For my first class in this school I wanted to introduce people to the basic techniques for changing fitted garments to different designs. This is my three week long An Introduction to Pattern Design class.

This year I wanted to try something different by showing people how the techniques for pattern design could be used to create holiday decorations and gifts. Last night I was having an online chat with one of my students, Jeana*, and I asked her what she was going to do for Halloween. She said she and her son, Andrew, liked to watch scary movies and eat home made treats. As it turns out Andrew, at the age of 12, enjoys sewing.

So we started talking about the kind of things Andrew likes, spiders, bats, and things like that. I wanted to start him with a simple project so I suggested ghosts. I was so intrigued by the idea of making a ghost, I made one myself today. Here is a picture of my ghost that glows in the dark.

To make this ghost all you need is a domed shape plastic bottle, some craft wire, I used millinery wire used for making hats, a circle of fabric which I cut out of an old tee-shirt, a marking pen, and a flashlight. Here are the pieces that go into making this ghost.

The steps to make this ghost are:

1. Cut the top off the bottle.
2. Measure from the top of the bottle to the bottom.
3. Cut a circle from the tee-shirt that is the radius of the length determined in Step #2.
4. Twist the wire around the bottle.
5. Place the flashlight in the bottle.
6. Place the circle of fabric over the bottle.
7. Draw in the eyes with a marking pen.
8. Have fun shaping the arms into something spooky.
9. Turn off the lights and admire your creation.

Here is a photo of the ghost with the lights on.

After we discussed this we continued to chat about how to make spiders, spider webs, bats, witches and pumpkins. And this is only Halloween. I am looking forward to our class discussions about decorations for Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and New Years.

Happy Holidays.

(*Note: Out of respect for the inspiration Jeana generated, I asked for permission to use Jeana and Andrew’s names. Jeanna agreed to this.)