Creating your own scary costumes and spooky accessories is a must at Halloween and no little vampire or witch would be complete without his or her creature companion!
Spiders
You will need:
• Fabric
• Toy stuffing
• Pipe cleaners
• Wiggly eyes
• Basic sewing kit
1. Use a plate to draw a circle on your fabric and cut out. Using thick thread sew some longish stitches all around the circle, about 1cm (.in) from the edge.
2. Pull the threads tight to gather up the fabric, push some stuffing in through the gap and then tie the threads in a knot.
3. Take four pipe cleaners and lie them across the gathered bit of the spider’s body. Using big stitches sew them across the middle.
4. Shape the pipe cleaners into legs and add some eyes, eyebrows, teeth and any other details. You can also sew some elastic on to the top of your spider.
Make these spiders even creepier by sewing on scary faces with embroidery thread. You can make them from any scraps of fabric – fleece, felt – or cut up an old jumper or t-shirt.
Bats
You will need:
• Black paper
• Old-fashioned wooden clothes pegs (craft shops often have these)
• White chalk or pencil
• Black felt pen or paint
• Elastic or string
1. Copy the batwing shape on to black paper and cut out. Draw bone detail with white chalk or a pencil.
2. Thread the wings on to the clothes peg.
3. Draw on a bat face and colour in the body of the peg with black. Tie elastic or string around the top half of the body leaving enough spare to hang your bat (or you can always tie on an extra piece).
This is a really simple way to make spooky bats. Tie them on to a piece of elastic and hang in the window or a doorframe to fly.
Craft ideas taken from Boycraft: Loads of things to make For and With Boys (and Girls) by Sara Duchars and Sarah Marks
Published by Frances Lincoln at £12.99 paperback, W: franceslincoln.com