Good mooOOorning! OoooOOooooh! Halloween is almost here. While I don’t do much for Halloween, I like the cute Halloween decorations (never the scary ones!).
When the kids were young, I put up a few cute ghosts and pumpkins: ghosts in the trees, window cutouts and a few vintage cutouts that my mother-in-law had given me.
But as the kids got older, they weren’t into cute Halloween decorations, so I’ve gotten rid of stuff as it tears and starts to look worn.
The Halloween decorations I’ve kept were my mother-in-law’s decorations. They are older than the husband and I haven’t used them for a few years.
This year, I made a Halloween door hanger with the vintage paper decorations. It is not a Halloween wreath, but the cutouts look much better grouped together than when I taped them by themselves in random windows.
I do wish I had not used tape. As I removed the tape, it took some of the paper and color off the cutouts. Touching up the black areas with marker worked ok, but since they are old- I didn’t try to make them look perfect.
Sewing the cutouts onto black fabric was easy. Since it’s an inside decoration, I just did 3 stitches by hand at the top of each decoration to attach them.
Finding the black fabric was not as easy. I didn’t have any black ribbon or even felt.
I did find an old black t-shirt. So, I cut a 4 inch strip across the bottom, and then sewed a seam lengthwise. This made a 2 inch tube of fabric.
It was an easy, frugal substitution for ribbon. It was especially easy, since I pressed the fabric flat without turning it inside out.
I did start to turn it inside out to hide the stitches, but the stretchy t-shirt fabric made it difficult. Since I won’t wash it and no one will see the back, I quit turning it and just ironed it flat.
It is amazing how a little change can make things look better. I like having the vintage Halloween cutouts grouped together. It was such a fun, easy Halloween project and it is a great reminder of my mother-in-law and when the kids were young. Happy Halloween!
Happy Camping ( or vintage decorating!)
Frugal Campasaurus
