Thanksgiving weekend I entered a tree in a contest at an art fair at the Kane Co. Fairgrounds. I needed to figure out a way to decorate that would tell observers what my business was all about and not cost me much money. Four strings of “thread spool lights” from Moda, 5 yards of white rick-rack, 2 dozen cheapo ornaments with more rick-rack hot glued around, handmade cardboard and fabric scrap “fabric bolt ornaments”, and a eleventy billion and one various sized fabric yo-yos stitched together for a cool garland, and I had a tree!

  
The weekend before the craft show I had it set up in the back room and almost all decorated when I remembered that it still needed a topper. I swore I had seen plain paper mache dressmaker’s dummies at Joann’s or Hobby Lobby. But after a futile search I gave up. I looked online, no luck. Then I found a fabric pincushion dummy at Joann’s and decided to paint it to mimic my logo. Awesome.

Have I ever mentioned that I have a secret love of tacky things? You probably will never see me wearing a Bedazzled cowboy hat with rainbow feathers but I have a secret appreciation for that type of thing anyway. (I am such a fashion icon that there is a blog dedicated to watching what I wear. What’s that you say? Oh! That Mrs. O! Never mind.)

But vintage tacky I really can’t resist. Back in November I attended my church Women’s Retreat. Our Saturday evening entertainment was a White Elephant Gift exchange. I got stuck with won a “frog environment”. For some reason none of the other women tried to steal that fabulous prize. But at the end of the night I found myself coveting someone else’s gift.
 
Lo and behold, when I shared my admiration with its new owner she was more than happy to regift it to me on the spot (no need to even trade my lovely amphibian abode). This beauty is an approximately 11×14″ red velvet and paste rhinestone extravaganza of holiday bling!
  
Too bad it is the only one of its kind in existence huh?

Here is a link to the downloadable pdf of the fabric pumpkins I made last Saturday. I’ll also add the pattern to the Free Pattern page and to the original post.
 
pumpkin-pattern

Here is a quick and inexpensive project for making weather proof Halloween bats.
 
Using the same techniques I used to make Recycled Plastic Totes I bonded layers of black plastic garbage bags together to make a heavier “fabric”. Then I just cut out bat shapes and sewed thread through them to hang them from the front porch.

(Click on any of the thumbnail pictures for a larger view.)
Step 1: 
Fold garbage bag in quarters and smooth out wrinkles.
Step 2: 
Place folded bag between layers of paper. I use a large piece of newsprint.
Step 3: 
Set iron to wool/silk setting with no steam. Iron over paper/garbage bag sandwich. Be careful to keep iron moving and apply pressure to get plastic to melt and flatten out. Keep checking progress and flip plastic over periodically to help bond both sides. If the iron is too hot or left in one place too long it can cause holes in the plastic or make it stick to the paper. Gently peal the paper from the plastic if it starts to stick.
 
The end result will be a textured thick plastic “fabric”.

Step 4:   
Cut rectangle of plastic into two smaller rectangles. Using a paper template, and folding plastic in half, cut bat shape from both plastic rectangles. Download Bat Template PDF

Step 5:
Using mono-filament or black thread sew thread onto bat and hang.
 
On one bat I just sewed through the back of the “head” and on the other I sewed through both wings and connected the threads in the middle.