Double Double, Toil and Trouble.

All hallows eve has always scared me. Not so much the frights and freaky goings on, but more the fashion. That, after all, is the big question that rears its ghoulish head at this time of year. What the hell am I going to dress up as? According to Wikipedia, the endless cauldron of information, “the day is often associated with the colours black and orange.” So pumpkin it is then.

Last year I decided to get a bit creative and settled on going as a ‘funky witch’. Now, I realise witches aren’t exactly ‘funky’.  Ignoring the fact that Sex and the City and Halloween are two completely different films, and have nothing in common except that you probably wouldn’t take your granny to see either, I decided to take inspiration from SJP and the corsage and flouncy dress thing. Big mistake. As you can see from the slightly poor quality pictures above, my costume was about as Halloween-like as butterflies and rainbows.

Nevertheless the costume process did teach me a valuable lesson: how to make a net skirt. It is without a doubt the easiest thing I have made to-date and yet with enough netting, it creates quite a statement costume piece.

I’ve found this fantastic step-by-step guide, which sums the whole process up nicely but to simplify it further, here’s a mini-guide of my very own. Call it a Halloween treat if you will.

1)      Take 3 (or more) layers of net that are long enough to wrap around your waist at least 3 times, and wide enough for a skirt length.

2)      Sew wide stitches across the length of the material about an inch from the top, (which will become your waistband), in two lines one below the other (about 1/2 inch apart), leaving the threads untied at the ends.

3)      Pull the untied threads to gather the material. (Here is a handy little guide to gathering). The net will scrunch into the middle, so keep pulling and adjusting until you have the gathering you desire. But pull gently or the thread will snap!

4)      Sew the gathered net to a waistband (I used a simple black elastic as it was only for fancy dress) using tight stitches or preferably a sewing machine.

5)      Put skirt on and twirl about a bit. Voila!

So there we have it, simple and straightforward, but better saved for fairies or bumble bees, rather than not-so-scary witches.

As for this year, I don’t think a pumpkin is really quite me. Maybe I’ll opt for one of these gems instead. (I particularly like this one).