My girly ghost.

With all the Halloween magazines and decorating books I've been looking through, I was inspired to make one of those ghosts from an old pillowcase. Just about every book and magazine has these cute ghosts, with instructions from simple third-grade suggestions to over-the-top sew-as-you-go diagrams. I am not much of a sewer... buttons and hems and extremely simple repairs is about all I can do, and I don't have a sewing machine. But I didn't let that stop me... I wanted one of those ghosts for our front door.

And now I have one-- a very girly-looking ghost, without a doubt. First, I took an old pillowcase that had been washed so many times that it split right down the side. I was not about to sew it up by hand, but I did save it because it had such pretty embroidery on it. I used that for the head and upper body of my girly ghost, but first I cut off all of the blue flowers and green leaves that had been embroidered on it, no doubt by a 1930s-era bride many years ago. (I always find these pretty vintage pillowcases at estate sales.)

For the head of the ghost, I balled up a bunch of white plastic bags, then wrapped an old white kitchen towel around it to make it firmer. I stuck the head into a corner of the pillowcase and made it really round and head-like, then used an old white lace tablecloth to make the flowing body--- the pillowcase and the tablecloth took just a strip of white cotton to tie it all together at the neck. Not too tight now... a girl has to breathe.

For the eyes of my ghost--- I cut out two of the blue embroidered flowers. The nose is a bit of the blue embroidered edging, and the smile of my ghost is two strips of the green leaves. I could have sewn all the facial features on, but the hot-glue gun is faster, so that's what I did. I attached a cord to the back of her head so I could hang her on the door, and she looks wonderfully graceful because I spread out the lace tablecloth to make it look like she has arms. In one arm, I tied a little orange-sequined Halloween purse.... a girl always needs accessories, even when she's a ghost. (Thumbtacks are holding her ballerina-like pose.)

She really looked cute on the door, but something was missing--- hair! I looked through my stash of doilies and found a white one that had multi-colored flowers crocheted all around the edge. I folded that in half, put it over the hairless head of my girly ghost and now she looks like a goddess. Between her flower-blue eyes and the sequined purse, she is the best-dressed ghost on the street. My next-door neighbor V came over to see if I was ready for our walk and when she saw my girly ghost she doubled up laughing. V said "Leave it to you to figure out how to make a girly ghost!"

In the Halloween spirit, I'm reading "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley. Amazing, outstanding story. Beautifully written, with paragraphs so well-crafted that I've read them two and three times before moving down to the next.