UMBRELLA WITCH

Did you know that there is a full moon tonight?  An October full moon means Witches Nite Out and I'm throwing a party!  I've had a lot of fun decorating for it and this is my favorite project.

Isn't she fabulous?  I told you earlier in the week that I saw this project "online" several years ago, long before I knew what a blog was.  I have no clue whose idea it was or what blog it came from, but I fell in love with it and every Halloween, I've wanted to make it.  Two years ago, I told my dear friend Judy about it and she even sewed the legs for me and still, I didn't get it assembled.  This year, I finally did it.  

I took my umbrella witch outside and hung it from a tree so you could get a good look at her, but if you hang her inside she looks like she's floating right down from the ceiling.  Her wickedly wispy tulle skirt moves with the slightest breeze and although it was pretty windy the day I took these pictures, I did manage to snap one while it was calm so you could see it a little better.

Here's the how-to just in case you want to "magik-one-up", as my friend Heather says.
You need a pair of legs.

Now I told you my awesome friend Judy made mine for me, and they are way better than my plan, which was to use some tights and stuff them inside a pair of kids boots.  I like her idea better.  Those curvy toes and high heels on the boots are just perfect!  I stuffed the legs with poly-fill.  In the above photo, you can see one stuffed and the other is not....because I was so excited to finally do this project that I realized that I had not taken a "before" pic of the legs.  Stuff em as tight as you can without ripping the seams.

You need an umbrella.  Mine came from the Dollar Store.  Open the umbrella and snip off the handle as close as you can just under the little catch that keeps it open.  I used some bolt cutters, but it was serious overkill...the handle is very thin and you could do it with wire snips.  Now wrap up that cut end with some electrical tape or duct tape because if you don't, you will cut yourself on that sharp end and you might say some swears.

Leave that huge open umbrella in the middle of the living room where it's in everyone's way for a couple of days, and then cut some tulle strips for her skirt.
After totally frustrating myself trying to cut flimsy, slippery tulle into strips and possibly saying some more swears, I called my friend Judy.  (She's like my craft guru hotline.)  Seems the solution is to fold it as best you can and then cut your strips with a rotary cutter.  Worked like a charm!

Make yourself a whole pile of them.....

I cut some long and some short to give her skirt a more raggedy effect.  There are 8 skeleton ribs on my umbrella and I attached 12 strips to each spine.  You do the math..I'm too lazy.  Attaching them was simple...just tie the strips onto the umbrellas skeleton ribs with a double knot because that tulle has a mind of it's own and you want it to stay put.  (FYI:  I had to google umbrella parts because I wasn't sure what those were called....skeleton ribs!..perfect for Halloween!)

The only thing left is to attach the legs to the umbrella.  I thought about this for a long time.  After leaving the legs and the open umbrella out in the living room where it was in everyone's way for one more day...I figured it out.  With the ordinary magic of zip-ties, I was able to get this umbrella witch hanging in no time.  I used two small zip-ties to close the top of the legs.  You could sew them closed if you want, but I didn't think it was worth getting my sewing machine out for.  Most of my regular readers already know that my sewing machine is possessed.  I call him Damien and I rarely let him out of his cabinet.  He has horns and he scares me.

I need an exorcist...seriously.

But I digress...I used a humongous sewing needle and some dental floss and just ran it through the top of both legs to hold them close together.

After the legs were secured together, I ran a medium sized zip-tie in between the witches legs (around the floss) and attached it to the umbrellas skeleton ribs in the center.  I used one more zip tie as hanger loop, just poked it up through top of the umbrella.  (Zip-ties are to me, what duct tape is to my husband.  Throw a few in your purse...you'd be surprised what you'll need them for!)
Now my Umbrella Witch is finished and ready for transport to the party.  Yep...I'm not having this party here in my home...I'm having it at my local bar.  I mean, it's Witches Nite Out after all.  The owner, Marchelle was kind enough to allow me to use her awesome bar as my party venue.  She's dressing up like a witch too.  She's giving us our own corner of the bar AND...I hear she created a special shot just for us!  So fun!!  What crazy, fun friends I have who will meet me at the bar tonight..all dressed like witches.  I'll share some pics if they're fit to post!  Here is one friend I'm looking forward to seeing.  Her name is Renee and she came out to my pumpkin patch dressed like a witch one year....

Isn't she awesome??!!  I wrote my second ever blog post about her and you can read it HERE if you are so inclined.
So...as a final note to this already too long post, I have a plan to cute my witch up just a little more, but...I wanted to get this post up and running so I could link it up to my good friend Mel's party over at Mellywood's Mansion.  It's a fun one and if you have a project you want to link up...head on over to the link at the bottom of this post.

Linking up to any of the fine parties listed HERE as well as....
 

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