Halloween Pumpkin Lady...how to make her! post 40 -

Halloween ...

Decorating for Halloween can go two ways…creepy and scary, or what I prefer, just plain fun!

Our Fall Hayride and Barn Supper is coming up, and I wanted a new fun decoration for the front yard.

A few years ago, I saw these lady ghosts on Pinterest, made from chicken wire and thought they were really cool!

A little twist...

We had found some old twisted chicken wire out by the goat barn, it wasn’t really good for anything but I kept it anyway, lol!

If I could straighten it out a bit, it would work great as an armature or form of some kind.

Last year I used an old hat, from a previous costume, on top of a white Styrofoam pumpkin, for a centerpiece on my dining room table.

If that hat would fit on my orange, light up, styrofoam pumpkin…I could use it for a head!

And the Pumpkin Lady was born!

Lessons learned...

This is the tutorial I used to learn how to make the form.

https://www.hgtv.com/lifestyle/entertaining/halloween-decoration–how-to-make-human-size-ghosts

The chicken wire I used, was a big fat mess, lol. But the tutorial was great and I was able to make a basic form…with no head.

She’s hard to see, but you get the idea.

I used an old broken, rake handle and pounded it in the ground, zip tying a campfire, hot dog stick to the top to make it taller….yep you read that right, lol.

Placing the chicken wire form over the top of the stake, I filled the pumpkin head with scrunched up chicken wire and placed it on top of the hot dog cooker stick, lol.

Resources...

A few days before building my pumpkin lady, I gathered up some things around the house to use for her dress.

I had some old black polka dot sheer panels that would work, but needed something to go underneath.

Stopping at an estate sale that afternoon, paid off! They had a queen size, dark grey, flat sheet, for $2.00.

Thick orange and black table runners in the Halloween bins downstairs, worked for an apron.

After holding the sheet up to the form and deciding it was plenty big enough, I cut off a couple feet to use for the sleeves.

Using big safety pins and thin floral wire, I wrapped the arms with the cut piece of sheet.

After it was wrapped, I squeezed the arms to give them more shape.

Dress Details...

Using a thick piece of wire around her waist, made a sturdy anchor to attach the over skirt.

Tucking the sheer panels under the wire, then pulling it up to her neck, made the front bodice and skirt.

To make the side bustles, I pulled the sheer panels under the waist wire, until they didn’t touch the ground. As the extra fabric folded over, it made cute side and back bustles.

Apron...

For years, I’ve held on to these orange and black Jacquard table runners, knowing I would use them for something…someday, lol!

Pushing them under her waist wire, the top of the runner made a thick ruffle, that would keep it in place.

Here she was before her sleeves, hat, or side bustles…already looking really cute!

Sleeves...

Here arms looked too blah and needed some color. Using the same runners, I laid one on each shoulder and secured it with a large safety pin.

Then wrapped it around her wrists and tied a thin piece of wire around the table runner to create puffed sleeves.

The Hat...

Years ago, I had a vintage goods/gift shop, called The Pink Cupboard. I used to order from a company called Bethany Lowe. She had vintage styled Christmas, Spring, and Halloween Decor.

This Bethany Lowe hat, has been discontinued, but would be fun to reproduce. It was supposed to look like a Victorian Riding Hat.

Adding some little skeletons from the dollar store, netting for a veil, a few feathers hot glued on the back of any black hat, wouldn’t be that hard to do.

Here is the back of the Bethany Lowe hat. I pulled the veil down over the pumpkin, to help keep it on.

Here is the hat from the front.

Final touches...

She ended up being around 6 feet tall, lol. Making sure she wouldn’t blow over, I went around the perimeter of the skirt, lifted it up and pushed landscape pins, through the chicken wire, into the ground.

We did get a windy rain storm the next day…and she held up great.