House Haunts by Heather...Inspiration Cafe

Welcome to the Inspiration Cafe. It's Heather this week, and I am so excited to get you inspired to do something....sewing.

Halloween is almost here. I know,  don't blink or anything. That is why I am taking the time today, in September, to help you get some Halloween decor ready before Halloween...because that's how I typically make decorations for holidays.  Once they are over I get things done and then can't use them until the following year.  So, we're getting started early.

I felt my house needed some haunts.  Kinda like Halloween groupies.  They hang around giving my house some ambiance, make us feel a little spooky...make my kids need to have the hall light on all night while they sleep...you know, things like that.  I also wanted to give you two options.  One you can make with a sewing machine and one to make by hand with a needle and thread.  Both are easy and cute....and they take very little time. Which for me, counts for a lot when it comes to making decorations.  I love to get inspired and be able to make something in an hour flat.

Sewing Machine option

1. Get some fabric. Whatever fits your Halloween style. I am using old lady mauve's and Grandpa grays because of this ghastly wall hanging.

2.  Cut alternating strips of fabric.  Anywhere from 2" wide to .75" wide.  And sew them together.  I wasn't too concerned with the length, as long as they were at least 8.5" long...I knew that I would trim it up later.

3.  Make a ghostly shape.  I roughly cut a piece of white fabric and just made sure it would basically fit and then cut it into a sperm...I mean, spirit shape.  The Mister just has a dirty mind.

4.  Start stitching around the edge of your ghost.  This is a rough-edge project so don't worry about turning the edges under...you want it to look a bit ragged.  I found that sewing around the edge 3 times produced the look I was going for.

Then draw on the face.

5.  Now you've got to fill in the eyes and mouth.  I went straight down all the way across and then started a zig zag up and down.  You don't want it to be completely solid....keep going until you like the look.   You also want to sew around the edge to give the mouth and eyes a defined look.

6.  Add a border around the whole thing.  And voila.  Now, I actually made mini quilts out of my House Haunts, so I sandwiched them with batting and another layer of fabric.  Then threw on the binding.  You do to whatever level you feel confident with.

I made two haunts using this method.  The Mister says this one is better.  I like the first one best.

Hand Sewing Option

1.  Cut a block of fabric to size.  This was 8.5" x 8.5".  Cut out your ghostly shape.  As you can see, I just chose a fabric that I liked.  No sewing involved...yet.

2.  Outline it using 2 strands of embroidery floss in your needle.  I found that outlining it twice with embroidery thread was perfect versus 3 rows with the sewing machine.

3.  When hand sewing the eyes and mouth, I found it was easier to break the ovals up into about 3rds for the vertical lines.  Then sew horizontally and slantwise across it to start filling it in.

4.  Make sure to outline around them for a nice defined shape.  Throw on a border around the edge if you want.  You can totally hand sew a border on.  I cut mine purposely wonky.  Just make sure you put your front sides together and do an even running stitch across.  Then press.  All good!

Now welcome your house haunts home...don't mind my pink walls.  My sewing room is the kids former play room.

Happy Halloween in a month and a half.

Thanks for reading.

Heather