How to Make a Dummy for Halloween Decor

October 8, 2017 by Florence 48 Comments

I’m showing you how to make a dummy for Halloween decor, but really, this guy is my Mr. Dreamboat, which you’ll see below. I’ll give you a brief porch tour at the end to tie it all together. I created what I’ve always dreamed of, but never done. The unlikely object below was my inspiration and you’ll learn how further down.

I really had fun with this Fall porch!

Confession

OK-TRUTH: I usually don’t decorate at all…OK, maaybe a pumpkin sitting on the steps…that’s it.

But THIS year, I got into the spirit, and finally created what I call my Mr. Dreamboat. So call him a stuffed dummy…stuffed man…pumpkin-headed man…whatever, but he’s a dreamboat to me! He’s NOT a scarecrow either. I’ve always wanted one of these, but figured he was too hard to make. Looking back, it was really easy.

Yes, I admire those stuffed figures that have character…not scary ones, and not rigid scarecrows.

My Dream~

My Mr. Dreamboat would be admired by passersby because he would sit on a bale of hay in the front yard close to the road, and he would smile and wave. He might even have a pumpkin head, but for sure he’s wearing jeans, flannel shirt, and hat. And everyone would exclaim and say “isn’t that person clever to have created that?” Well, it’s just a dream.

Reality Says…

He can’t sit on a bale of hay (Mr. Dreamboat on a bale of hay would require a whole lotta support!)
The bale of hay can’t be in the yard. It can’t be close to passers-by or close to the road because…bales of hay on grass kills grass
And he can’t be waving…see reason #1

I realized I had to modify my dream just a bit.

So How to Create This Dummy, er…Dreamboat?

First we have to have clothes, stuffing, and some way of giving him form.

How to Get the Guy to Pose

Giving him form means he needs a backbone, which I did with coathangers wired together.

As it turned out, I straightened the long brown wire you see bent in the photo. I straightened it to go down one leg. I originally planned for him to cross his legs, but the wire wasn’t long enough. I used 1 coathanger for the torso, and one for the head.

What I Learned:

The brown coathangers are much harder to work with than the thinner white ones. Even with the help of a vice and pliers, it was almost impossible to work the brown one. That’s why I gave up lengthening the wire in his leg so I could cross them.

wire-backbone — The Beginning of the Dummy

Here I planned to give him 2 strong arms, but the difficulty of working with the brown wire changed my mind. So I settled for one.

Here we are fitting the dummy (Dreamboat) with his shirt~the hubby kindly contributed his well-worn work clothes.

Here begins the fun part…forming the guy, the dummy, the Dreamboat…

Begin stuffing from the bottom. Safety pin the lower legs shut after he’s stuffed enough.

What to Use for Stuffing

Fiberfill
Newspaper
Shredded paper
plastic bags

What I Used~

This summer we took stuffing out of rock-hard rigid patio pillows and chair seats. I planned to sell it all in an upcoming yard sale, but I had enough to do my whole man! Plus I used a bit of tulle I got from a friend who does weddings.

Now bring in the shirt, button it up, and start stuffing. Don’t forget the shoulders and arms. Stuff the shirttail into the pants, and safety pin the back of the shirt to the pants’ waist.

See how the “backbone” is stuck down into the pants? Having that bit of support was helpful. Do the same with the arm wire, guiding it down into the sleeve. Poke the stuffing all around it.

Once he’s stuffed, gather up your guy tenderly and take him where he’s going to land. In my case, it was to a metal loveseat on our front porch. Mr. Dreamboat made it without mishap. I forgot to take pictures, but my guy sat headless on the porch for a few days until I decided how to do his head. And EVERY TIME I went to the porch, I got a start just seeing his legs sitting there…never mind that he was headless!

Creating the Head~

There are several options:

he could have a real pumpkin head…nah too heavy
you could go all creative with paper mache…nah too messy, and I’m too lazy.
you could do a cardboard one and draw a face…nah too elementary
you could do a wooden one and draw a face….nah I don’t do the power tool thing

But a fabric pumpkin head would be just the thing. We’ve been seeing how to do fabric pumpkins all over blogland.

What size to make it was the next huge question. A little trial and error, and I ended with a 23″ diameter circle of fabric.

The Basic Directions:

It’s the same process as making a fabric yo-yo.

Begin with a circle of fabric
Start a long basting stitch around the perimeter of the circle (about 1/4″ from the edge)
I left the thread on the spool the entire time I was sewing.
Begin gathering the circle closed by pulling the ends of the thread
When you have it closed, start stuffing with fiberfill, while poufing into a head shape
When shaped to your satisfaction, you can tie the 2 ends of thread together to hold it closed.

I used yellow fabric for the head…again, whatever you want to use.

Take it out to Mr. Dummy Man (Dreamboat) and give him his head. Here’s where I really wasn’t sure why I made a wire circle for his head. But it was helpful for anchoring it. I bent it together and stuffed it into the head. I didn’t want to hot glue it because hubby still wanted to use the clothes.

I formed the eyes and mouth with black construction paper and glued them on with regular Elmer’s glue.

The lower pants legs went into a pair of old shoes.

I posed his right arm a bit, and had enough wire left over to cock up his hand to wave.

I stuffed tulle into dirty old gardening gloves of mine and pinned to his shirt cuffs.

Other Construction Details~

The Straw Hat~we found it covered with dust in the basement and almost tossed it, but I remembered Mr. Dreamboat had no hat. I simply pinned it in several spots with straight pins.
The Red Bandana~Stuffed into his shirt pocket for a bit of color.
The Witches’ Broom~a recent thrift store find completes the non-scary scenario
The Clay Jack O’ Lantern between his legs to remind everyone it’s Halloween after all~I found that at a thrift store earlier in the year. It holds a battery-operated candle found at an estate sale.
The “John” on his shirt~I found that in a bunch of sewing supplies at an estate sale

So instead of being scary, Mr. Dreamboat looks just like Farmer John taking a break from his labors.

Now what about the colander? I saw it one day and said to myself, hmm, this would make a good hat for a dummy. I must have been thinking of The Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, dontcha think??? So began the Dummy man, er, my Mr. Dreamboat.

And here he is with the rest of my Fall Decor!

bale-of-hav-fall-decor — There’s My Bale of Hay Where It Can’t Kill the Grass

I did a bit of rearranging….

With the exception of the pumpkin in the photo below, every single thing came from yard or estate sales!

pumpkin-and-pottery-face-jugs — Giant Pumpkin in the Corner with My Pottery Face Jugs Below

ghosties-and-mini-pumpkins — Here are the “Ghosties” I Made and Mini Pumpkins

And amidst it all…hydrangeas are still blooming!

Fall come!

Sharing with these link parties~

“Raking” in Autumn with a Jazzy Front Door

September 28, 2017 by Florence 35 Comments

“‘Raking'” in Autumn with a Jazzy Front Door” should conjure up an image of an old rusty rake, and if so, you’d be right. I’ve been waiting to show you a unique-to-me door decoration for Fall I completed a couple of weeks ago. And just in time, too, for the monthly Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge.

The Rules:

Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
There’s no monthly theme.
There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

I found the old metal rake head half buried at the back of a barn waaay out in the country when hubby and I attended an estate sale in the middle of sweltering Summer heat…

The kind of heat that totally saps your energy.

The kind of heat that immediately has you sweating as soon as you step out of the car.

That’s Alabama.

And when it’s that hot, I swear…all you want to do is sit in the AC! The house wasn’t air conditioned either, but I persisted, and was glad I did. I found a whole lot of goodies that day and hopefully, I can show you in an upcoming vintage finds post.

Let me tell you a little about the Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge, in case you didn’t read all the above. If you’re not familiar with it, a group of us bloggers challenges each other to come up with a newly upcycled item using a thrift store, yard sale, resale store, or estate sale find. That’s right up my alley because I always have plenty of those. There’s no budget or theme and I love that because it allows creativity to soar.

I’ve seen several cute crafts with rake heads that look like this. Yes, I’ve raked many a leaf pile with one of these.

But…the one I found looked like this! Just picture…no handle and rusty and you’ll have it. I’ve actually raked leaves with one of these, but it’s much harder, because this kind of rake is really for leveling soil. Use this to rake leaves, and you’ll rake more than leaves. You’ll pull your grass out too.

We’re not working in the yard now though. The plan is to jazz up the front door with the rake head, but our front door is a glass storm door and one we use constantly. The challenge is to find a way for it not to bang the glass, which is impossible. (Been there, done that). So even though I said it’s going to hang on the front door, it won’t. It will land on the front porch instead.

So here’s what I started with:

Rake head
Sprigs of Fall leaves from the Dollar Store
Dollar Store Leaf Garland
Florist’s wire
Wire cutters

I only used the garland, and one of the leaf clusters, and not the green spray at the bottom of the photo. And though, we don’t have to keep score on what we spent, the rake head cost me a whopping 10¢, the leaf garland and leaf clusters were $1 each, so total I spent on this was $2.10. I already had the florist’s wire and wire cutters, and I’m not counting the other two things I didn’t use.

I put the leaf garland on first, wiring it down, and of course, it looked puny, but this is just the beginning.

I planned to fill in the gaps with snips from the leaf clusters, but they were wrinkled and didn’t look right. Can you iron these without melting? I had no idea, but gave it a try, and it worked fine. Ironed the leaves and started wiring them on the rake head.

The whole process really didn’t take long, and I’m ashamed to say I forgot to take a photo of its semi-finished state. I liked it, but something was missing. Ah, a bow! So I hustled myself down to Michael’s to find a burlap bow.

“We don’t have pre-made burlap bows,” the clerk said perkily…while filling a wreath with burlap bows. Whaaat? Michael’s doesn’t have pre-made burlap bows??? You mean to tell me everyone in the whole wide world makes their own bows, and I’m not gonna find a pre-made bow in a craft store??? I was incredulous.

I did find a semi-burlap-y pre-made bow I liked. Please tell me all you crafters out there don’t all make your own bows! (I have to have a little help in the bow-making department.) Anyway, the bow came in 3 parts. And even a slightly craft-challenged person like me can manage to put the bow together! LOL

And I simply wired it onto the side of the rake. Voila! My finished masterpiece to jazz up our front porch!

And a close-up. You can actually see the rake a little better here.

PIN PLEASE! THANK YOU!

Hope you enjoyed my jazzy door decoration, that’s not a door decoration, but shhh, we won’t tell.

Update:

This is where I put it, and though, it’s not on the door, it’s very close. I love it propped on that old metal frame that already lives by the door anyway!

Final Halloween Porch Reveal coming soon!

metal-frame-after-with-rake-head-arrangement — Metal Frame After

Sharing with these Link Parties….

And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Giving a Hint of Fall with Fabric and a Wire Basket

September 18, 2017 by Florence 48 Comments

When trying to decide what to make for the Monthly Craft Destash Challenge, I knew it was my chance to destash a little fabric. I’m giving a hint of Fall with fabric and a wire basket using finds from the thrift and Dollar Stores. I should do a show ‘n’ tell of my entire fabric stash and it’s not pretty, but piled high in old laundry baskets hastily shoved under the bed when company comes.

Every month a group of bloggers are challenged by C’mon Get Crafty to create a new craft or project from their own stash of goodies! Check out some awesome creations you might be able to make from your own stash! #CraftRoomDestashChallenge

We are allowed up to $10 for necessary supplies to complete the challenge, and I spent about $2 total.

A couple of months ago, I had so much fun creating DIY Funky Junk Mobile Art. Making a hanging mobile out of bits of junk like old rabies dog tags, old telephone parts, old metal thingies. Check it out if you haven’t seen it! I believe it is my most favorite!

[clickToTweet tweet=”What crafty creations could you make today from YOUR craft stash?! #CraftRoomDestashChallenge” quote=”What crafty creations could you make today from YOUR craft stash?! #CraftRoomDestashChallenge”]

If you’d like to join in the Craft Room De-Stash Challenge, you can request to join our Facebook group here!

I’d love to make a funky wreath out of the wire basket below, but my front door would never close. As you can see, this is the kind of basket you stick a coco liner in, followed by dirt and a plant. It already sits naturally on its side, and is perfect for an arrangement. But I’ll just tell you ahead of time y’all, I’m not the least bit crafty. You should see me at thrift stores turning objects around and around trying to get inspired, but I’m just as clueless before as after.

Imagine the basket as a lampshade…it’s about the right shape, eh? Pinterest has a few lampshade projects showing shades covered with torn fabric strips and I’ve been wanting to do one ever since I saw it. That was the vision and the plan for this and use up a bit of fabric in the process. The below is my favorite Fall-ish fabric I found several years ago at an estate sale.

By the way, I’ve got a couple of other lampshade projects here and here, if you need some ideas. I love how they turned out.

Back to this project~I began by tearing 3/4″-1″ strips…not an exact science, mind you. I started with a small knot at the bottom of the basket, and planned to tie the other end to the rim of the basket.

After several tied strips, I wasn’t liking the look at all. So I untied one end and decided to use hot glue instead. That gave better coverage with less gaps. I simply untied the lower knot and glued it to the wire rim instead, slightly overlapping to the strip before it.

The method? Simply fold the top of the strip over the bottom rim of the basket and hot-glue it fabric-on-fabric. Then fold the other end over the top rim of the basket and glued again, fabric-on-fabric.

I have to be honest and tell you that this part of the project was rather tedious & time-consuming. But I finally got all the basket covered like so.

A stained doily from my huge doily stash went on next to cover the opening at the bottom of the basket. The stain will be covered by the next items to go in.

Here’s a Dollar Store pumpkin going in next…

Followed by several Dollar Store pumpkins and gourds from last year….

Toying with the idea of putting more vintage doilies at the top, but decided against it.

You know how I know it’s really Fall every year? By all the acorns and hickory nuts that congregate on the grass. Certainly not by the temperatures, because it’s still in the 90’s here in Alabama. So last year when I wrote “When Hickory Nuts Fall,” I got a whole bunch of responses from readers suggesting decorating with them rather than gathering by the buckets full and throwing away like we usually do. It never occurred to me to use them in decor.

How to show them? The basket fit nicely on an old silver tray with the nuts arranged around it, but the nuts don’t show up as well as they do in the next photo using a white wooden tray.

Nice, but it still needed something. Well, it so happens that I lucked up on these pretty leaf garlands in a thrift store yesterday, and they are thicker and fuller than those from the Dollar Store.

I’m enjoying the arrangement, and it gives a hint of the coming season until Fall really gets here.

And guess what else I found at the thrift store??? I went to 4 thrift stores and finally found something I could use and liked! I can’t resist showing you because you’ll probably see it again…this awesome broom! And what, pray tell, does this remind you of???

Hope you like it!

And now, don’t forget to visit the other awesome blogger’s beautiful crafty projects below:

INLINKZ:

An InLinkz Link-up

Plain Jane Purses Given Fancy Makeovers

August 21, 2017 by Florence 42 Comments

“Plain Jane purses given fancy makeovers” is my DIY project for the Monthly Craft Destash Challenge! Every month, a group of bloggers challenges each other to create a new craft or project from their own stash of goodies. You can use anything in your stash, but the rule is to not spend over $10 for the supplies you might need to make the project.

Monthly Craft Destash Challenge

I have so much stash~

Frankly sometimes I don’t know where to turn next. Ha! Last month I destashed beads into DIY Funky Junk Mobile Art. I still have a lot of those, so you’ll probably see another bead project down the road.

If you’d like to join in the Craft Room De-Stash Challenge, you can request to join our Facebook group here!

This month I’ve been in a quandary, and procrastinated, but I thought of what I wanted to do. I have a whole lot of fabric, trims, doilies and vintage buttons in the stash. I sell a lot of it in my Etsy shop, but I use some in projects too.

Confession: I have a purse fetish too~

I love them…vintage purses, almost vintage purses, vintage style purses, acrylic purses, box purses…you name it. And kicking myself because I purged one I was saving for a repurpose project.

The below purse came from Wal-Mart…a simple straw bag. Nothing wrong with it…just wanted to fancify it. Hubby said he loves to see me with a straw bag because it reminds him of when we were dating. (Aww, that was over 20 years ago!)

So I gathered blue sewing trims, a crochet doily with a blue border, 2 cream doilies, fabric yo-yos I made from men’s ties, and beads to create this….

With hot glue, they are there to stay!

The next purse is a vintage one that I’ve been trying to sell. I love it! It’s totally beaded all over, and even has a little coin purse inside, so it most likely dates from the 50’s-60’s era. Made in Hong Kong.

It hasn’t sold though. Do you see the problem on the front?

Yes that stain looks obvious to me, but my man says he didn’t see it, so I listed it anyway and hoped for the best. It hasn’t sold so time to fix it.

My fix-it method is easy….just glue something over it!

(The method also works on favorite outfits.) The very first night I wore a new denim dress, a huge grease stain just jumped smack dab front and center! Wouldn’t you know it? Next day I hustled over to the local fabric store, bought some red stick-on thingys, came home and ironed them randomly all over the dress. Grease spot gone, or at least minimized.

All that to say…glue things over flaws!

OK back to the purses…

I chose another doily and vintage buttons to do this job.

I’m pretty pleased with how these two turned out!

Would you pin? Thank you!

Don’t forget to see what the other crafty bloggers have been up to!

Sharing with these link parties~

An InLinkz Link-up

Fancy Vintage Planter Made from Thrift Store Finds

July 27, 2017 by Florence 70 Comments

I’m excited to be a part of this month’s Thrift Store Decor Upcycle Challenge! Scroll down to read about the Challenge, and see how this project evolved!

The Rules:

Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
There’s no monthly theme.
There’s no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

Fancy Vintage Planter Made from Thrift Store Finds

One day recently I was in the Salvation Army Thrift Store to see if I could find something…ANYTHING to inspire me for the monthly Thrift Store Challenge. I’m a part of a group of DIY’ing bloggers, so I want my project to be worthwhile.

The rules are simple: transform a thrift store find, yard sale find, or resale store find into a new piece of decor. No theme to stick to and no budget.

Wouldn’t you know it…I couldn’t find a darn thing! Doesn’t Murphy’s Law say, when you’re looking for it, you can’t find it?? Out of the store empty-handed! All you like-minded shoppers know exactly what I mean.

A few days later, I drove across town to another Thrift Store I like, but don’t go to often because of the distance. I found mostly things for my Etsy shop, but nothing to repurpose. And THEN……I SAW it!

Finding the Thrift Store Treasure~

It was pricey, but at 30%-off-day, I got a beauty for $4.19.

I fell in love…and knew what I wanted to do…

This is wire and metal with a perfectly chippy look! You can see in the bottom photo that it is actually a sconce to hang on the wall like this! (below)

The Repurpose Plan

Simple. Hang it upside down and put a trailing plant in its little “tray”… (the top of the sconce).

Off to the nursery….

Since I live in the Deep South, planting season is over because it’s so darn hot. Nobody is in the mood for outdoor gardening! So it was slim pickings at the plant place, but I found exactly what I was looking for….”Creeping Jenny,” my favorite trailing plant. $3.74 for a little pot.

And then as I was walking past one of my junky piles at home, I spied a funky gold thing I’ve had in my stash for a whole year. I’d been pondering how to use it.

I’m talking about that gold thing on the bottom. I found it at a Thrift Store in Maryville, Tennessee. I think I paid 99¢.

These were part of my “Smoky Mountain Pickin'” haul…a bunch of fabulous vintage finds from a year ago with a little history of the abandoned town of Elkmont in the Smokies.

I’ve seen the gold thing repurposed into a cute necklace holder, so I planned to do that and list in my Etsy shop, but I never got around to it.

So what does this have to do with the sconce? I’ll tell you…I had a light bulb moment! Let’s put the gold thing on the bottom of the sconce to decorate it and add a bit of extra oomph! I got busy spray painting it white.

And by the way, here’s the “Cheapskate Picker’s” cheapskate spray painting station~

I asked hubby to drill a hole in the masonry for me, and here it is!

The Finished Fancy Planter

fancy-vintage-planter — The Fancy Vintage Planter

Don’t you think this would have been a bajillion dollars at Pottery Barn or Ikea??

And with the trailing tendrils of Creeping Jenny….

View from the driveway~

I’m so proud of the new fancy planter!

About Creeping Jenny

As you can see, it’s a pretty trailing plant, and ground cover. Though it looks delicate, it’s actually hardy and versatile if you give it plenty of water. During the Summer, I water and mist its leaves twice a day, and it’s thriving! I thought it was a shade-loving plant, and it is, but it also does well in sun. It’s easy to root, too, if you want to propagate. Just snip some tendrils and stick in water.

Hope you liked the fancy vintage planter made from thrift store finds!

And now, don’t forget to visit the other bloggers in the Thrift Store Challenge to see their inspiring projects!

Sharing with these link parties~