spider

Halloween Patchwork Spider Tutorial: Part 2 – English Paper Pieced Spider

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You can never have too many spiders at Halloween – only fabric ones that is! 

I was so pleased with my quilted patchwork spider I decided to make another fabric spider for Halloween. I wanted this to be a bit different to the previous spider so decided to make the body out of patchwork hexagons using one of my favourite patch working methods – English paper piecing. I really enjoy patchworking with this method, using the paper templates gives such sharp edges and it’s so easy to do – although it is a bit more time consuming than using a machine. Since I was going to hand sew all the hexagons together I decided I would use on my hand stitching for the whole spider, it’s nice to get a break from the machine every now and then!


Similarly to the previous spider I was lucky to receive some of The Craft Cotton Company fabric and the Brights fat quarter bundle was perfect for this – the Orange and green colours are ideal for Halloween and the navy provides a perfect darker contrast. I was a bit nervous on how it would look in all different colours rather than just in black and white but I think it’s really worked out we, and is s great contrast to the other patchwork spider. I hope I have enough time to make a few more of these, it would be great to have them all in different sizes!


Hexagon patchwork spider tutorial:

Materials:

Brights fat quarter set by The Craft Cotton Company.

  • Ruler.
  • Paper.
  • Pencil.
  • Scissors.
  • Toy Stuffing.
  • Pins.
  • Thread.
  • Needle.
  • White felt.
  • Black felt.

Hexagons:

For this I made hexagons which were 4 cm long on each side, but you could do as big or as small as you want.

  • Need in total: 14 hexagons, 6 diamonds  (instructions for the diamonds come later).

  • You can choose whatever colour combination you would like, I’ve chosen to use a bright green, bright orange and a dark navy from the Craft Cotton Company fat quarter set in Brights.
  • I wanted the top and bottom of mine to be mirrored so to make this easier for sewing the individual hexagons together and making sure I got them all in the right places.
  • I laid the top pieces out right side up and the bottom side pieces in the same position but facing right side down as this the positioning I wanted once the body has been sewn all together. I alternated between the colours and chose to use the layout in the picture below.

  • Next you need to cut out the fabric, make sure you leave a 1cm seam allowance around the hexagon template. Now tack stitch the fabric onto the template by turning the seam allowance around the template and tacking around the edge, repeat this for all the hexagons.

  • Now your ready to start putting them together: I joined the top and bottom sections together separately so I didn’t get too confused with all the hexagons and start getting them in the wrong place! To join them together take two hexagons and place right side together and sew down the side seam to join them using a colour similar to one of the hexagons.
  • Repeat this until all the hexagons of the top and then the bottom are joined together. I started by sewing one side of each of the hexagons surrounding the middle piece to the middle piece, then I sewed each side of the surrounding ones together.

Diamonds:

  • Now you have the top and bottom sections completed, you need to make the diamonds. To make the diamond template: take 4 of the hexagon templates and lay them out in two rows on top of each other, this will leave a triangular shape in between the four hexagons, place a piece of paper in this gap and draw the diamond shape, cut it out and there is your diamond template.
  • You will need 6 of these, I chose to do 2 in each of the three colours. Now sew these diamonds onto the top piece in between the hexagons by placing the right sides together and sewing down the seams, the positions and the colour layout I chose I shown on the picture.

The Legs:

  • Cut a paper template 5cm wide and 20cm long. Now cut out 8 legs in different colours. Now for the leg filling – cut out a template 3cm wide and 19cm long and cut out some batting, fold the batting in half and place inside the centre of fabric leg.
  • Now fold over the bottom short edge of the fabric, then fold over one side of the long edge of the fabric and slip stitch along the bottom of the leg to seal, then fold over the other side of the fabric tucking it under itself to make a seam and slip stitch down the side of the leg to seal.
  • Now to create the bend – sew a line across the leg 8cm from the top.

Sewing the body together:

  • Pin the legs to the body four on each side, with 2 legs to a hexagon side separated by a diamond infill piece. Pin them to the right side of the body with 1cm of the top of the leg hanging over the outside edge.

  • Now pin the top and bottom pieces together with right sides together keeping the legs tucked in on the inside and sew around to join the top and bottom pieces together making sure when you sew those sides with the legs on that the 1cm of the top of the leg is sewn in on the inside between the top and bottom, leaving 3 hexagon sides unsewn so you can turn it the right way around.
  • Before turning take out the tacking stitch and the paper templates, turn right side around then stuff and hand sew the 3 sides closed.



  
Eyes:

  • In white felt cut out two round eyes, I drew around a cotton reel to get the size I wanted.
  • In black cut out 2 circles, I drew around a smaller cotton reel for this.
  • Next place the black pupils in the white eyes – position then in a place you like best – its a great way of getting different expressions depending on where you put the pupils!
  • Now sew them onto the head in your desired position.


Teeth:

Cut two small triangles out of white felt and sew onto the spider for the teeth. I just did a line of stitching along the top of the tooth so the bottom half of the tooth remains unsewn.

All finished!

He is very happy with his spider friend too – Tutorial is also available for this giant quilted patchwork spider.

Pom Pom Halloween Spider Decoration Tutorial 

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This little one looks quite mean in these photos – he looks so much happier in person! Although the mean face is actually perfect for Halloween! Now to make some more Halloween themed Pom poms – First up a pumpkin.

I love making Pom poms, any chance and I’m making them. They are so easy and quick to make, perfect for Halloween decorations! I made some spiders last year but wanted to make a few more, this time I have stuck to using black orange and white but you could use any colours you like. Also size wise you can make these as big or as small as you please – I have made some really large ones before and they look great.

Pom Pom spider instructions: 

Materials:

  • Card.
  • Pencil.
  • Scissors.
  • Wool – in black, orange and white (or any other colours you prefer).
  • White Felt.

Making the pom pom spider:

  • Cut out two cardboard circles, I drew around a juice bottle to get the size I wanted, then I drew around a 2p coin in the middle of the bigger cardboard circle and cut it out. The bigger the spider you want – the bigger you should make the size of the cardboard circles.
  • Place these two cardboard circles on top of each other.
  • Next cut a long length of wool in one of you chosen colours, I started with dark blue. Hold on to the loose end on the cardboard circle then wrap the wool around the cardboard, when this length runs out continue in your next colour, my second was orange.  Continue this process until the circle in the centre of the cardboard is completely filled, towards the end you might find you need to thread the wool onto a needle to get it to go through. You want to make sure this centre is tightly filled otherwise it will easily fall apart.
  • Once you have first few rounds completed and the two cardboard circles are not going to move you can actually wrap around a few threads together at the same time to speed up the making a little bit, I did this with three threads together one of each of the three colours I was using.
  • Once the centre is full it is time to cut around the Pom Pom to remove it from the cardboard. To do this cut around the edge of the cardboard, making sure you cut in between the two cardboard pieces. Next take a length of wool and wrap around the strands making sure it is tied tightly – this is what holds the Pom Pom together. Next remove the cardboard and there’s your Pom Pom!

Legs:

  • You need 8 legs in total, therefore you need 4 lengths of wool. I chose to do all the legs the same colour but you could do them in the different colours used.
  • Once the wool for the legs has been cut thread a length onto a needle and sew through the middle of the Pom Pom. I did mine 35 cm long for the size of spider I made, I like the legs to be long and dangly too! Repeat this for the remaining legs.

Eyes:

  • Cut out small white circles in felt for the eyes, then using black wool sew the felt into the Pom Pom making the centre pupil of the eye at the same time. To do this tie a knot into one end of the black wool, thread the other onto the needle and pull through from the back to the front, then sew back to the back and sew into the centre of the Pom Pom and then back out into the eye to secure it to the spider.
  • Now the white felt is fixed, sew from front to back on the white felt a few times to make the pupil. Fasten off and repeat for the other eye.



Loop:

If you want a loop to be able to hang it up, take a long length of wool, tie a knot into one end, sew into centre of Pom Pom then leaving a long loop see back into the Pom Pom and fasten off.

All finished!

Halloween Patchwork Spider Tutorial: Part 1 – Quilted Giant Patchwork Spider

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Halloween will soon be upon us so it’s time for a bit of a spooky Halloween craft takeover, scuttling in first is a quilted patchwork spider!

I started my Halloween makes a little later than normal this year, I normally like to get started nice and early as I have quite a few to do each year. This year however I have lost track of time – the year is just going by so fast I am loosing track of what month we are in. So I now that I am late starting I need to get cracking on my makes to get them finished in time, although as they say better late than never!

The first make this year is a quilted patchwork spider, I love having spiders around the house as decorations for Halloween and wanted one which would last a bit longer than just a paper or card one. I made this one quite large but you could do it as small or big as you like, also you don’t have to put the quilting details on you could just do it as a plain patchwork one.


I was very lucky to receive some of The Craft Cotton Company fabric to make this (a big thank you to The Craft Cotton Company), I do love this fabric I am always able to find a fat quarter set that is just perfect for the make I have in mind, and I really like making things using the fabric. The fat quarter bundle which was ideal for this was Classic Black.


As with any make where you make the pattern yourself I was a bit nervous whether the spider would be a full success or whether I would need to tweak the pattern a bit, but I think I have got it just right – so so happy! A house of spooky makes won’t to too far away now!


There are some lovely makes and tutorials over on the The Craft Cotton Company blog:


I always love to see what other people are making using the fat quarter bundle sets, there are lots of great ideas on there along with all their lovely fabrics!


Quilted halloween patchwork spider instructions:

Materials:

  • Classic Black fat quarter set by The Craft Cotton Company.
  • Batting.
  • Toy Stuffing.
  • Thread.
  • Needle.
  • Scissors.
  • Paper.
  • Pencil.
  • Pins.
  • White felt.
  • Black felt.

Making the Body Template:

  • Draw around a plate the size you want the spider to be, for spider I used a small dinner plate as I wanted it to be a good size, but you could do it as small or as big as you wanted. Draw around the plate and cut out.
  • Next fold this piece of paper in half and draw a curved line starting from the top right down to the bottom. I wanted my spider to be quite squat rather than ball like so I made the curve quite wide in the middle section.
  • Cut along this line to create the body pattern piece.
  • Next take this body pattern piece and draw around it and cut out another, now cut this second pattern piece in half – this give you two halves of the leg section pattern piece.


Cutting the fabric:

  • For the body I selected to use 3 of the 6 different fabrics from the fat quarter set, this meant each fabric would appear twice on the body, once on the front and once on the back. You will need to use the body pattern piece twice (one for the front and one for the back) and the leg section pieces 4 times (two for the front and two for the back – with one pair each side of the large pattern piece).
  • When cutting out the fabrics ensure you add a 5mm seam allowance.



Adding the quilted detail:

  • Cut out a piece of batting the same size of each of the fabric pieces along with a piece of lining fabric.
  • Now take one of your fabric pieces and its corresponding batting and fabric pin together to stop any movement and start to quilt – you can choose what pattern you like to do this, I decided to do a free hand swirling pattern.
  • Repeat this on all of the pieces. Trim down if needed afterwards so that the wadding and backing fabric are the same size as the front fabric piece.

Making the legs:

  • Cut 8 long strips of fabric, 30cm long and 8cm wide (this includes a 5mm seam allowance). I cut a template out for this first to make cutting out much easier. I used a selection of the 3 fabrics used for the body for these legs.
  • Fold the shortest ends of the strip in half with right sides facing each other, pin to secure and sew down the side and along the bottom, leaving the top unsewn.
  • Next turn the legs to right way out, and stuff lightly, this isn’t the easiest but using a long ruler of knitting needle will help! Leave 2cm from the top unstuffed.
  • Now 11 cm from the top sew across the leg and fasten off – this creates the joint in the leg.
  • Repeat until all 8 legs are made.

Attaching the Legs:

  • Take two of the leg section pieces (a top and bottom piece) and place 2 of the legs to the left hand side of the bottom piece, do not place it too close to the edge seam otherwise it will get caught up in that seam when sewing together. Also, when placing these together ensure the leg pieces are laid at least 1cm over the top edge of the fabric otherwise they will not be sealed in the seam, then lay the top piece on top of the bottom piece right sides facing together.
  • Now sew along the straight edge to seal the legs into the seam of the two pieces.
  • This give you a joined front leg piece. Repeat once more.

  • Now repeat this process with another two of the leg section pieces (a top and bottom piece), but instead of placing the legs to the left hand side, place them to the right hand side of the bottom piece.
  • This gives you a joined back leg piece – This means when the front and back joined leg pieces are sewn together the legs will all be next to each other without a large gap. Repeat once more.

Assembly:

  • Take one of the front joined leg section pieces and a back joined leg section piece and place right sides together, making sure the legs are lined up on top of each other (this means once you open it back it the legs will match). Sew down the side seam on the left to join the pieces together ensuring the legs do not get caught in the seam!. Repeat with the remaining two joined leg section pieces.
  • Join the remaining pieces:
    • Take a body piece and place right sides together with the previous joined leg pieces and sew down the side seam to attach.
    • Take the second set of joined leg section pieces and place right sides together with the previous body piece and sew down the side seam to attach.
    • Take the final body piece, place right sides together with the previous joined leg section pieces and sew down the side seam to attach.
  • Once you reach the final seam to join, only sew half way down the final seam, turn the spider the right way around and stuff. Once stuffed, hand sew this opening closed.
  • If you would like a loop for hanging, then before fully sewing closed the top place a piece of ribbon 30cm in length folded in half and sew into the seam at the top of the spider as you sew it all closed. I used the ribbon that tied the fat bundle together – perfect!

Eyes:

  • In white felt cut out two round eyes, I drew around a kitchen roll tube to get the size I wanted.
  • In black cut out 2 circles, I drew around a small cotton reel for this size.
  • Next place the black pupils in the White eyes – position then in a place you like best – its a great way of getting different expressions depending on where you put the pupils!
  • Next sew the eyes onto the head, I put mine on the seam on each side of the middle section, but again different expressions can be made depending on where you place the eyes so you can choose to put them wherever you like the look best.


Happy sewing!