Ghost!

1-2 hour project

I made my first ghosty 8 years ago to go with my graveyard. At my old house, I had HUGE trees surrounding it, so I used to hang it by a cable that went from my roof to the tree. It looks so cool that way- he would really "fly" around in the wind! But when we moved to our new house, we didn't have any way of hanging him, so I had to resort to a 10' piece of re bar (only about $3 at Home Depot) He has withstood the years of elements and is a must for our spooky graveyard. The rest of the year he haunts my garage. :D
Here is what you will need:
*garbage or grocery sacks
*stiff paper roll (I used the one from my plastic wrap - it is super sturdy) or
you can use a regular paper towel roll, just reinforce it with duck tape.
*Duck Tape
*Wire (bailing wire is a nice thick and cheap wire - you can buy it at Lowe's or
Home Depot for under $5 and I have had my roll for 9 years)
*Muslin (3-6 yards depending on how large you want your ghost - buy the cheapest)
*Cheese Cloth (I buy the 6 yard package with a coupon at Joann's for about $4 - that
will be enough for two ghosts)
*safety pins

Okay, first thing is, fill a shopping bag with several balled up grocery sacks, the more you put in the bigger your head will be. Center your paper tube in the center and stuff around it

(I taped a hard plastic lid to the top of my tube to prevent the re bar from puncturing the top of the ghosts head- I learned that lesson the hard way with my first one)


Pull your bag tightly closed

Start wrapping the head with tape (this will make it last for years like mine)


Add one more grocery bag over the taped head to help conceal the dark tape.

Now take a piece of wire and wrap the center around your tube one or two times, cut each arm the length you want(mine are about 2' each)
Put one more garbage bag over taped head to conceal the dark tape
Start wrapping wire back and forth over each arm several times, I did 5 times to really secure it well. The more wire you do, the sturdier your arms will be when it comes to holding up under the weight of the cloth. NOTICE! if you are going to hang him, this is where you will need to make a loop of wire and securely tape it with duck tape on top.



Take your cloth (I used 3 yards of muslin, and several other fabric scraps that I had around my house- I wanted a few different shades of white and cream) and drape it over the head, making sure front and back are pretty even.

Now start taring your strips, cut slits and different intervals (1" - 2" - 1/2")
and tare it up to about 1-2" away from the arms and base of the head.



Add more smaller fabric strips and repeat till your ghost is as thick as you want.


Add the cheese cloth and cut and tare like you did the muslin. Depending on the width of your ghost and your cheese cloth, you may have to use two lengths, just overlap them over the head if you have to do that.

Now to secure the fabric, I add a few safety pins as close to the wire arms as possible to make sure the fabric doesn't slip off in the wind. Another way to do this is to tie a knot in a front piece with a back piece (wire in between) Hope that makes sense - I forgot to take a picture! It should look something like this:

Now either hang him or put a piece of re bar up through the tube. You will just love the way he will float in the wind!


Happy Haunting!!!