Homemade Halloween: My little Spider!

I love, love LOVE Halloween and always have done since I was a little girl. The excitement of planning what to wear, the pumpkin carving and the trick or treating. I love that it seems to get bigger in the UK every year now. It doesn't need to break the bank though, there are plenty of budget shops around that sell Halloween goodies plus if you use your imagination you can create a fab costume, decorations and food goodies.

Having a sister nine years younger than me meant Halloween was always fun. I remember sewing layers of black net onto a hairband and black dress to create a budget Bride of Dracula outfit for her - she certainly stood out amongst a crowd of witches! She'd then come home from trick or treating to 'eyeball stew' - grapes floating in Cola and 'snake slime' - gummy worms set in green jelly!

Now this Halloween is rather special for me, as I now have a little one to make a costume for! Although she'll only be 3 months old, I still wanted her to celebrate it with us. Plus I plan to make a scrap book and photo album of her first year and wanted some cute photos to mark her first ever Halloween. As she's so small I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something she would only wear for a very short time.

After much thinking on what I could make simply and cheaply, I came up with a spider outfit. Here's how I made it...

Take 4 pairs of your old, laddered tights and stuff!

This costume is also great for recycling, what else are you going to do with those old, laddered tights?! If you don't have any old tights about, Primark do a multipack for £4. I stuffed mine with anything I had about, bubble wrap from parcels, carrier bags - anything will do.

Stuff each leg to however long you want it to be, then knot.

Stuff each leg with enough filling to make it long enough for your child and then knot together.I then cut off the gusset of the tights and sewed it onto the back of a  plain black body suit. Black baby bodysuits did prove hard to find in the shops but I eventually found one on Ebay for £2.50.

I picked up some black baby tights from Peacocks for £2.00 and a black ribbon hairband from Ebay for £1.30.
I then twisted a black pipe cleaner at the top of the hairband. I got a pack of 80 pipe cleaners from Poundland for £1.00.

And here is the end result!

Total cost of costume is £6.80, I haven't included the tights as technically I was recycling them but if you had to go out and specifically buy them then £10.80. I will be using the bodysuit, baby tights and hairband again so I'm quite pleased at the overall cost.


The spiderweb background in this picture is a plain paper tablecloth with a web drawn on in black marker, I got a 4 pack of paper tablecloths from Poundland for a £1.00 - great for your Halloween tables. The spider LED lights are also from Poundland for... you guessed it, a £1.00!

I'm looking forward to next weekend when I'll be carving up pumpkins for lanterns and making pumpkin soup!

Moneysupermarket.com are running a #homemadehalloween competition with prizes for the best costumes in 3 categories (adults, kids and group), why not try a budget homemade costume yourself, blog about it and enter?

Who fights the monster under your bed?

Who fights the monster under your bed? Or, in my case - the ones hiding in the blood test room?!

This is my entry into the Warren Evans 'Who fights the monsters under your bed' competition

I had many soft toys as a child and a few have lasted the years and still sit by my bedside. My most beloved is Clowny (I wasn't very imaginative with names as a child and had Clowny, Pinky, Giraffey - you get the picture!) who is a soft bodied clown with wool hair and felt eyes, nose and mouth. He did originally have a fine set of clothes but these are long gone so he's now a naturist clown in his old age!

I spent a lot of time in hospital as a child due to my heart condition and Clowny was given to me as a get well present from a neighbour. As a child I loved clowns and at the age of 5, a clown was what I aspired to be 'when I grew up!'! I was thrilled with Clowny and was rarely without him.

Clowny with me in hospital.

Clowny certainly made things easier for me whilst in hospital. Due to having to look after my older brother and sister, my Mum wasn't always able to stay with me so Clowny was a comfort on those nights. At the end of the ward was the ' Evil Room', the room where you went for injections and blood tests which of course I associated with pain and upset. I was moved to a bed where I could see this room, which although the door would be shut - still scared me! With Clowny on hand for hugs, I always knew I was safe in my bed.

One fateful evening when I returned from brushing my teeth I found CLOWNY MISSING FROM MY BED!! Cue full on tears and tantrum, how could I go to bed and sleep without Clowny, especially when I could see the 'Evil Room' at the end of the corridor? The nurses searched all around my bedside and went from bed to bed to see if Clowny had been snaffled by another child but he was nowhere to be seen. My favourite nurse went off to the wards toy box to see if there was another toy I could sleep with despite me sobbing that no other toy would do. I was inconsolable and the nurses couldn't calm me down. Order was finally restored when my favourite nurse returned from her trip to the toy box, beaming and holding my beloved Clowny! It seems one of the day nurses had thought he was a 'hospital toy' and had scooped Clowny up with other toys to be returned to the communal toy box! I don't think Clowny left my side after that, I certainly remember always taking him to the bathroom with me!

 He may look a bit worse for the wear these days but he still guards my bedside and I bet it's only a matter of time till the day when my little one will start wanting cuddles off him. I'm sure he'll be as perfect a guardian to her as he was to me!

Hello!

One of my new resolutions of 2010 was to set up and keep a blog, I got as far as setting this account up! Almost 3 years on I'm going to see if I can give it another go! What with a new baby and impending return to work (sob!), it will be a toughie but it's something I've always wanted to do so here goes....