Halloween Storm-y

Supplies in hand, this year's Halloween costumes are underway. What are we supposed to be? Well, I thought it was pretty clear, but when my daughter asked if we were jellyfish, I figured we needed a thunderbolt. Yes, we are thunderclouds with lightening and rain. 

Supplies: plenty of fiberfill, umbrella hats, fairy lights with small battery included, dark tulle for lining, Mylar ribbon, and beads on a string. If you don't have a glue gun, include that on your shopping list with plenty of extra glue sticks. I bought a hot glue gun- if I had it to do again, it would be a cool temperature one. (hello burns on my fingertips) Foam core board to make some lightening bolts added after the fact.

I had plenty of help with the first cloud, Millie was most intrigued with my supplies. Not knowing how much tulle I needed, I first cut it in half and then quartered it. Since the umbrella hats were rainbow colors, I needed to camouflage it. The tulle I found was had gold glitter sparkles in the fabric...how cool is that! 

Weaving and layering the strips of tulle through the spokes of the umbrella and gluing in place was pretty straight forward. 

Next step was to weave one strand of the fairy lights in the black tulle. The battery case was glued to the center post of the underside.

Flipping the umbrella over I decided to glue the fairy lights on first, to be under the cloud. The battery cases were glued at the top on either side of the white knob on top. 

Tried it on to see how it looked. You can see the lights on the underside in the black tulle and the lights on top, springing free of the glue. 

Next step was gluing the fiberfill over the lights. This fiberfill didn't come in strips or sheets but loose for packing a stuffed animal or pillow. I took small handfuls of it and glued it down, moving around the hat. If there was a gap in the fill, I would come back and either add more or glue the fill to itself.

Lights underneath

Time to glue the bead threads. I decided to glue the longest ones on the spokes of the umbrella for good spacing. Also hung strands of Mylar ribbon from the spokes and around the umbrella....to represent rain. Also cut a lightening bolt and glued it on the top front.

Thundercloud #1 complete

Lamps make good 'cloud stands'

Thundercloud #2 was easier to make- upstairs, away from the kitty

My craft/sewing table

Here is the underside with the battery case glued to the underside of the top. 

After trying to locate the spokes after the fiberfill was glued on the first cloud, I thought it would be easier to glue and tie on the rain streamers before the fiberfill. Also marked the front so I could get most of the rain streamers in the front and most of the lights.

Trying this one on. As Charlie is a lot taller, his rain streamers are longer. That is really the only difference between the two. You can see in the photo below I need to tuck some of the black tulle back into the hat, it shouldn't hang that long. 

Lightening bolt added........all done. We will dress in dark clothes to disappear below the clouds.

No prizes this year but lots of fun at the neighborhood party. Do you dress up for Halloween?

©Copyright 2019 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.