Handmade Halloween
A look at our spookiest projects!
As Halloween approaches, I’ve been wondering which new makes I would like to try this year. That got me thinking about previous Halloween craft projects, and I thought it would be fun to dig out a few throwback photos and share some of my spookiest makes from the last few years. Some of these are personal projects and crochet patterns I’ve designed, and some are creations that we used to make Halloween window displays in our yarn shop. Keep reading for handmade Halloween inspiration, some free patterns, and an exclusive first look at this year’s window display!
Our first set of photos are from a window display we did last autumn, and some general Halloween decorations we made for the shop. The first skull is inspired by Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a Mexican holiday that takes place just a couple of days after Halloween. This celebration involves unique designs and vibrant colours, so this skull really stands out from the crowd. We mounted the skull to a triangle shaped craft hoop, and turned this into a hanging decoration for our ceiling.
The other 3 photos are from our shop windows. We brought these displays to life with pumpkin people, crochet characters that doubled as autumnal decorations, and our favourite handmade wreath.
Our next series of throwback photos are from a Halloween earring collection I designed a couple of years ago. You may have seen I recently released the ghost earrings as a free crochet pattern - click here to download - so I thought I’d show you the other designs from the collection in this article.
The pumpkins were the first pattern I designed as I really wanted to make my own autumn earrings. After I finished them, I thought it would be cool to add a jack-o-lantern style face to them. Then I got really into it, and ended up designing the other 3 crochet patterns in the same week. The eyeballs might be my favourite; they’re a really simple pattern that can be changed up easily with different colours, and it was fun stitching on veins to make the bloodshot effect. I made another pair of eyeball earrings in purple to add to the handmade Halloween costume pictured below.
This fortune teller look was really easy to put together. I found a free crochet pattern for a headband on Pinterest and added a sparkly button to it. I combined this with my purple eyeballs and yarn crystal ball (the same yarn I used for the headband) and this Halloween costume was ready to go! If you’re looking for a quick and easy outfit idea, I’d really recommend this.
Our next photo is from another wool shop window display. We thought it would be fun to do a Halloween take on Afternoon Tea, and this idea was a big success. There were many locals passing by the shop who stopped to admire this one, and it’s a window that we loved too. We used two free crochet patterns from Elisa’s Crochet, one called the Fall Cupcake (click here) and the other called the Halloween Cupcake (click here). We made the ghost on the Halloween cupcake using glow in the dark DMC embroidery thread, which always makes projects more exciting! To see a recent video of our glow in the dark ghost, go to our shop Instagram page (click here). This thread has sold out completely, but we have more on the way; to be notified when it arrives, just email us at help@babesinthewool.co.uk to be added to the waitlist.
I also used the glow in the dark thread to make a spider and spider’s web last year. This was such a fun project, and it got bonus points for helping me spook my dog when I put it in his bed! I made the spider pattern up myself and it was really easy to do so I might try and write it up as a free pattern if I have time this October.
I will say that last year was probably my spookiest year as a maker. For some reason I got really into Halloween projects and ended up making several different things. Pictured left is a pattern called ‘Spooky Face’ by Spirit and Thread crochet, which is available for free on their website (click here). You can add it to all kinds of things, such as trick or treat bags, but I added mine to a crochet top. Pictured right is a spooky scrunchie I made. After making more earrings last year, I got really into using thin crochet cotton and a tiny hook. I have a giant crochet stitch book filled with different borders, so I tried one of these out to make a lacy looking scrunchie.
Below is the crochet top I added my spooky face to! This was the first top I ever made for myself, and my first proper crochet garment. I love how it turned out; I was really excited to bring it out again this year and wear it all through spooky season. The next throwback project is a jack-o-lantern treat bag I made using a free crochet pattern from Pinterest. This was a really quick project so I made a couple of them to give out treats to friends and family. When it came to the felt, I did cheat a little and used superglue to stick the pieces on. This soaked through the felt and once it had dried it left a spooky trail along the fabric which really gave these bags some character!
That’s it for our handmade Halloween throwback projects! I hope you enjoyed coming down memory lane with me. Below you will find a couple of sneak peek photos of our upcoming window display for autumn. So far we have ‘Mother Earth Head’ from Ricorumi’s Element Heads book (click here), a vast collection of pumpkins and toadstools, and a mushroom tote bag (click here for free crochet pattern). We also have another skull to add our shop’s collection. Because you can never have too many I suppose…💀
Which of these handmade Halloween projects is your favourite?
