Halloween

I am not normally a Halloween person.

But… one of our favourite indian restaurants was putting on a Halloween night so we thought we would go along for fun. Then realised it was fancy dress, and had to make an effort!

I wanted something different that you couldn’t buy in a shop! And as I had been crocheting pumpkins for the post box topper, decided I would go as a pumpkin. But how?! I have always like puffball skirts and thought I could do that to make a pumpkin shape.

I bought a selection of orange fabrics on line, along with a green jersey for a stalk, and some boning (for structure – but that didn’t really work out), plus some netting.

One of the fabrics was too dark really, so I used that for the lining. The lining was a short A-line skirt, circumference about 150cm at the bottom, about 50cm long. For the outer part of the skirt I needed as much fabric as possible, so it would ‘poof’ out enough! I had 2 contrasting orange fabrics, a plain polycotton, and a satin one with sequins, so I cut each one into 4 width-wise. One of the fabrics was <1m length, so that drove the length @ 70cm – sufficiently longer than the lining to add to the ‘poof’. The 4 pieces of each were then joined together, alternating them to give an effect of the lumpy bits of the pumpkin. The full width of this outer part was then ~3m – double the lining, so when gathered, puffs out.

I tried putting boning in to give structure, but it wasn’t working out right, so I just put doubled up netting between the lining and the outer to fill it out a bit. I then added orange netting over the outside for fun (not in the pictures below). Sounds quite simple, but a LOT of gathering of the outer fabric AND the netting!!

I also decided to make my own green stalk! I had had a pattern for a while that I hadn’t used yet, so gave it a go. Not my best sewing ever, as it ended up being a bit of a rush. Pattern was McCalls M7975, and it came out a bit on the large size. I added some crocheted pumpkins on a headband and some face paint in case anyone didn’t get what I was!!! Not sure what Paul was…. a cross between Fester and a vampire LOL. Anyway he won one of the fancy dress prizes and I didn’t so I probably won’t be bothering again!!!

It was a very fun evening at Lymm Spice Lounge though.