October 22, 2019

But Make It Halloween

Hello fall lovers, we are getting so close that most sacred of holidays: Halloween. Don’t get me wrong other holidays may be nice but a holiday that allows you to dress up in costumes and eat as much candy as you want simply cannot be beaten. I like to maximize the time allowed celebrating Halloween because Christmas is always around the corner trying to push Halloween out of the way (rude). I never feel like I have the time to do all the spooky things I want before BOOM it’s November. So this year I decided to try and find ways to fit some festive elements into my everyday life. Some of these DIYs are a bit more overt than others but it’s Halloween so meh I think you can be as extra as you’d like.

Black Widow

You’ll need a plain black sweater or shirt, white yarn or embroidery thread, chalk, and a sewing needle. Starting at the neckline trace out a spider web pattern. I don’t have any embroidery skills but what’s really great about this is that spiders webs aren’t even or uniform so if it turns out wonky it still looks good. If I did this again, which I probably will because I love it, I would use embroidery thread instead of yarn. The yarn looks really nice but not the sturdiest used in this way.

Full of Sorrow

Listen, I’m a full-grown woman and I still aspire to be little Wednesday Adams. All you need is a black dress, a white button-up shirt, and fabric glue. I bought a large men’s shirt to have a looser collar. You could just layer the two but it can look a little bulky. Cut out the collar from the shirt and fit into the dress. Using the glue to fix the collar in place. If you want it to be extra secure you can stitch with black string along the shoulder seams.

Pumpkin King

I wanted this sweater to be a fun vintage-y looking Halloween sweater. You’ll need an orange sweater, black fabric paint, a paintbrush, a plastic bag, and painters tape. Use the painter’s tape to stencil out a Jack-O-Lantern pattern onto your sweater. Before you start painting try on the sweater to see how it aligns on your body. I wanted to avoid an unfortunate ‘Jack-O-Lantern eye lining up with boobs’ situation. Once you’re happy with the placement put the plastic bag inside the sweater so no paint will go through to the back of the sweater. Then just paint in the stencil making sure you get full coverage. Allow the paint to fully dry and then peel off the painter’s tape.

Frikin Bats

I was hoping to do this DIY on a sheer shirt but I couldn’t find any I liked at the thrift store. Luckily I did find this scarf. Make sure whatever material you buy that it’s sheer but with a fine weave so the design will still show up. You’ll need a scarf (or shirt), fabric paints, scissors, a plastic bag, gloves, scissors, and a sponge. Trace a bat onto the sponge and then cut out. Layout the scarf with plastic underneath and the wearing gloves stamp the paint on with the sponge. Allow the paint to dry and it’s done!

Vamp Vibes

Initially, I was hoping this would look more like bat wings but I’m not sure that totally came across. Still, it’s super cosy and the cutouts add an interesting element to the wrap, cape, thing. All you need is the wrap, chalk, scissors and something to finish the edges. I used a sewing machine but you could hand sew it or just use fabric glue. Trace out the design you want and add in a seam allowance then cut out the shapes. Fold the edges up to seal in the raw edges. That’s it!