Flaming Tongue - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Happy Halloween one and all!  Also known as All Hallow’s eve and linked to the Christian All Saint’s Day and of course it’s earliest incarnation the Celtic Samhain!

Like many modern western holidays the pagan roots have been partially co-opted by Christianity and more recently commercialisation.    Back in Celtic times Samhain marked the very end of the harvest and a transition from the lighter half of the year into the darker.  It shouldn’t therefore be a surprise that in the UK the clocks go back from British Summer Time (BST) to Grenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the last Saturday of October, perhaps a nod to ancient Celtic Practices

Samhain though was traditionally celebrated over a number of days rather than just the one evening, a harvest festival on a grand scale with bonfires, costumes and masks.  Some scholars believe it to have been the beginning of the Celtic calendar.  The Gaels (a branch of the Celtic nations) believed that on Samhain the veil between the living and the otherworld thinned, allowing the spirits of the dead to cross over.  The logic behind this belief of the thinning between worlds stemmed from the fact that so much of the plant and animal life was dying around them at that time of the year.

The Gaels would wear costumes and masks to mimic the spirits and thus placating them.  Samhnug (turnips) were hollowed out and carved into faces to make lanterns to ward off the evil spirits and the people would lead their livestock between bonfires to cleanse their animals and themselves.  The bones of slaughtered animals would be sacrificed up to the bonfires to further placate the spirits.

It’s not hard to see where the modern day Halloween originated, but it’s worth remembering that Samhain was a sacred festival to the Celtic people, so take a moment next time you go out trick or treating to remember the history behind the festival.

The veil is thin tonight, tread safely in the light.

Happy Samhain.

Wealie x

Fred the Pumpkin Dances - Copyright R.Weal 2010

This is Dylan in the Pumpkin costume that Ben and I made for him. Ben was in charge of the frame and measurements (metal work and mathematics are not my strong suit).  I handled the sewing of the fabric, adding the fine details of the face and leaves and the dubious pleasure of putting the whole thing together with my glue gun!

To make the costume took 3 square metres of orange felt, half a metre each of black and green felt, approximately 15 metres of coat hanger grade wire, a role of insulation tape, the use of a sewing machine, 9 glue gun sticks and several large chunks of my flesh when using said glue gun :-/

The result of all our hard work is Fred the pumpkin (Dylan chose his name), who is almost as wide as Dylan is tall and only just got through the doorway! This is Dylan (sorry Fred), dancing to the pumpkin rock which Ben was making up on his guitar as Dylan danced!

In addition to the pumpkin costume and the Wealie household pumpkins we also created a giant cobweb on the living room ceiling and added some home made spiders.  To make the web you need a few drawing pins and a big ball of thick black wool.  Pin the drawing pins into four equal corners of your ceiling and take a length of wool from each pin to the centre of the room and either pin them to the centre, or tie them around the light fitting (being careful of any fire hazards!).

Working from the centre out, tie a knot about 10 cms from the middle on the first of the four lengths, unwrap enough wool to make a line to the next length and again tie a knot.  Work round all the four lengths until you have a square.  Move out another 10 cm on the first length and repeat the process.  Once you’ve gone as far as possible cut your wool, lie on the floor and look up!  You’ve now got your very own home made cobweb.

A Wealie Web - Copyright R.Weal 2010

The spiders are easy to make, just cut up an egg box into the individual sections and paint each section, these become your spider’s body, so for a half dozen box you will be able to make 6 spiders. You may need to trim down the edges on some of the more modern egg boxes.

To make the legs take two standard length pipe cleaners and cut them in half, these four lengths will form your spider’s legs.  Put a glue dot in the centre of each length of pipe cleaner and glue to the inside bottom of the spider body.

Then you just fan out the legs and twist to make feet to cling to the cob web.  Finally use some more glue dots to attach a couple of googlie eyes and your spider is ready to sit on his (or her web) as in the picture above.

Anything goes with the Wealie household spiders and Dylan was in charge of choosing the colour matches and patterns for the bodies and legs.  The gallery below shows the twelve spiders created this year.  The red and purple one in the bottom corner is mine and Dylan’s favourite!

The Spider Gallery Halloween 2010 - Copyright R.Weal 2010

The last in our menagerie of Halloween creepies are the bats, which are showcased in the belfry gallery below.  Ben takes all the credit for the bats, he based the design on the pattern from some Halloween fabric that we bought.  Ben created a template on white paper, which he then cut around on the black card.  There was some interesting times had trying to suspend them properly, but they looked quite effective.  Personally I quite liked them stuck flat against the fire place and back door too!

So now you’ve got some idea of what Halloween is like in the Wealie household.  I hope you had fun making your Halloween decorations and costumes too.

Happy Halloween one and all!

Wealie x

Bats in the belfry - Copyright R.Weal 2010

The Pumpkin Fred - Copyright R.Weal 2010

If you’ve ever wondered how to make a pumpkin costume here’s how one’s made in the Wealie household.  Ben was in charge of the frame and measurements (metal work and mathematics are not my strong suit).  I handled the sewing of the fabric, adding the fine details of the face and leaves and the dubious pleasure of putting the whole thing together with my glue gun!

To make the costume took 3 square metres of orange felt, half a metre each of black and green felt, approximately 15 metres of coat hanger grade wire, a role of insulation tape, the use of a sewing machine, 9 glue gun sticks and several large chunks of my flesh when using said glue gun :-/

It’s actually quite an easy pattern, with a few little fiddly bits, but here’s how to make it.  Firstly you need to make three hoops of wire, one to go around the neck (make sure it fits comfortably with a fair amount of room over the head, as you will be adding layers of fabric on top), one for the middle (this should be the widest that you want your pumpkin to be and finally the legs (make sure the hoop is wide enough that the wearer will be able to walk unimpeded). To measure for the hoops you can measure a straight line across to give you the width from one side to the other of the circle, (the diameter), you then multiply the diameter by 3 to get the circumference (the length of the circle if you were to cut it, flatten it out into a straight line and then measure it end to end).

Dylan Peeks out of Pumpkin Fred - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Next you need 8 lengths of wire that you attach to the different hoops at the neck, middle and legs, these are your supporting struts and also the segments of the pumpkin. If you are able to welding is probably the best method of attaching the hoops and struts.  However, if like us you don’t have that kind of equipment, then insulation tape is an acceptable alternative, though not as robust! Once you’ve attached the frame together make sure you get the wearer to test it out before you go any further!

Now to cut out your fabric.  Divide the circumference of each hoop by eight and these are the measurements of the top, middle and bottom for each pumpkin segment.  For a small boy like Dylan each segment was about 30 cms at the widest point (the middle) and the strut lengths were about 9o cm.  So allowing for hemming cut a 40 cm by 1 metre length of orange felt.

Dylan is Pumpkin Fred - Copyright R.Weal 2010

On the back of the length measure out from a central point and mark up the width of the top middle and bottom, allowing a 4-5 cm hem at the top, bottom and on each side.  Then you need to draw a curve from the top to the middle and the middle to the bottom on both edges of the fabric from both the sewing lines and hem lines.

You should have drawn an elongated oval segment, which is slightly wider at the bottom, with parallel lines around 4-5 cm apart up to the edge of the fabric.  Once you’re happy with the measurements cut out the segment along the hem line and use this as the pattern template to cut out a further 7 segments.

Once you’ve cut out all the segments you’ll need to mark up the sewing line on a further 3 segments.  To avoid measuring up again place the three extra pieces of fabric beneath your original pattern and using your scissors stab points along the lines to go through onto the fabric beneath.  Lift off the template and then mark up the lines on each of the pieces of fabric beneath. Pin together each of the marked up segments with an unmarked segment and stitch along the sewing line on the right from top to bottom.  Once you’ve stitched together each pair begin to stitch together the pairings, again stitch the marked segments to an unmarked one.  Be careful you always stitch from the top down to put the pattern together correctly.

Worn out Fred sits - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Once all the segments are stitched together wrap them around the frame and pull them taut.  You should be able to overlap the two end segments.  Whilst one person is holding the segments together another needs to glue the segments down using a glue gun or fast acting fabric glue.  Now you can loop the hems over the top and bottom hoops, gluing them down as you work around the pumpkin.

Now it’s time to add the detail, cut out a face from the black felt, we went with triangles for the eyes and nose and a big spiky mouth and then glue them onto the main body where you want them.  Finally cut out 8 triangles from the green felt to make the leaves.  Glue them onto the neck hoop and slightly overlap them to ensure that all orange felt around the neck in covered.

That’s the hard work over, now you need to get your wearer to put it on and indicate where the arm holes need to go.  Simply cut a slit in the felt that they can put their arms through.  Add a trick or treat bucket and they’re ready to go!

The result for us is Fred the pumpkin (Dylan chose his name), who is almost as wide as Dylan is tall and only just got through the doorway (something you might want to take into consideration before building it)! The picture below is of Dylan (sorry Fred), dancing to the pumpkin rock which Ben was making up on his guitar as Dylan danced!

Happy Halloween and happy pumpkin making!

Wealie x

Fred the Pumpkin Dances - Copyright R.Weal 2010

This first picture is of all three pumpkins in a row, Dylan’s happy Jack design, my intricate doodle design and Dylan’s scary Jack.

Pumpkins Three - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Here’s Dylan’s happy Jack O’ Lantern – Dylan drew the design and with Ben’s help he carved out the pumpkin and cut in the design.

Smiling Jack - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Dylan chose his scary Jack O’ Lantern design from the pattern book that came with the pumpkin carving tools. He carved out the innards mostly on his own (though with a bit of help from his Dad Ben), he also marked out all the design and with a bit of help from Ben and I carved out the design. It turned out very effective I think, brings to mind demons in the fires of hell!

Hell's Fire - Copyright R.Weal 2010

And finally we have my doodle pumpkin, which got it’s name due to the fact that it’s covered in carved versions of the doodles that I mostly do with pen and ink, paint and canvas! As the design goes all the way around the pumpkin I took several photos, but rather than put all the photos here I’ve uploaded my favourite and put the rest on flickr. However, this is not all – I also created a silly little video which has all the pictures of my pumpkin and a little Happy Halloween message.

A Wealie Pumpkin - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Have a fantastic Halloween everyone.

Tread safely in the light and find me in the newborn night.

Wealie x