Sock Pumpkin and Sock Ghost Halloween Crafts

Several years ago, a Mom asked me to come up with a few Halloween crafts for my son's first grade class. At first I drew a blank. What craft would be fairly quick, economical and fun to make? In the end I was inspired to use a very unlikely material--socks! Here are instructions for making two classic Halloween figures, a pumpkin and a ghost, both using socks.

Sock Pumpkin

Materials:

One stretchy, orange athletic sock per pumpkin. ( I had trouble finding inexpensive orange socks for the whole class and decided to buy an inexpensive bag of white ankle length socks which I dyed orange. This was not as complicated as you may think--it only involved the washing machine, the socks and a box of orange RIT dye.)

1/4 yard of any type of green ribbon, at least 1/4" wide

10 oz. of polyester stuffing per pumpkin

Small square of black felt or foam sheeting for cutting out eyes, nose and mouth of the pumpkin face

Fabric glue

How To:

If using white socks for the pumpkins, follow RIT's machine dyeing instructions. Basically this means filling your washer with water, adding the dye and soakng the socks until they turn pumpkin orange.

After the socks are dyed, washed and dried, they are ready to use.

Stuff each sock with polyester filling, shaping the sock into a ball as you go. Your goal is to end up with a nice even pumpkin shape with a flat enough base to sit on a table. The pumpkin can be very large or small, depending on the amount of stuffing you want to use. Leave about 3 inches at the sock's opening unstuffed for the pumpkin stem.

Tie the green ribbon around the stem and tie into a bow.

Pre-cut the eyes, nose and mouth shapes from felt or foam for preschool children. Older kids can cut out the shapes themselves.

To complete the pumpkin, glue the black felt or foam shapes to the pumpkin's face.

Sock Ghost

I have seen several different ways to create a Halloween ghost figure and I like the fact that this one is made out of fabric, not paper.

Materials:

One stretchy, white athletic sock per ghost

One 12" square of white cotton fabric or sheeting per ghost

Fabric glue

1/4 yard of thin white ribbon

One rubber band

10 oz. polyester stuffing per ghost

2 flat-backed black buttons or small square of black felt for the ghost's eyes

How To:

Insert stuffing into the foot of each sock, forming a round head for the ghost, which is upside down at this point.

Place 12" square of white fabric over the head of the ghost and create a neck by looping a rubber band around the fabric at the base of the head.

Tie a piece of white ribbon around the neck of the ghost, forming a collar.

Glue the black button or round felt pieces to the face of the ghost, now covered by the sheeting.

Allow the rest of the fabric to drape down to form the body of the ghost.

If you want to hang the ghost as a Halloween decoration, attach a short piece of ribbon to the collar of the ghost to form a loop.

These crafts are easy to make at home and are also fun group crafts. My kids and I made a few samples so the crafts would be easier to make at the class Halloween party, and yes, the crafts were a hit!