This is a full-sized pattern, printable to a standard sheet of copy paper.

"Puffy Fabric Bats" For this fun project, you will need: ½-1 yard of unbleached muslin (Depends on how many bats you want to hang in your belfry or on your mantle.), poly-fiber filling, cheap black acrylic paint, pencil, brush, sewing machine, thread, scissors, thin 1/8-1/4” ribbon, fabric glue and sand paper. (Yes, really!) You’ll also need to print off the pattern!
Cut out the pattern you printed, lay it on top of the folded muslin fabric. (Folded-for a top & bottom bat shape.) Trace around the pattern with a pencil or a sharpie. It doesn’t matter if the ink bleeds into the fabric, since you will be painting this fabric-black! Take your traced pattern to your sewing machine and stitch on the pattern line. Do not worry about an opening for turning-that’s a few steps away. Once you have all your bat patterns stitched, you will want to cut them out, leaving ¼”-1/2” around the pattern, clip all edges for easy turning. Now, pull the back fabric up away from the front fabric and make a slit in the middle for turning. Turn the bats inside out and stuff them with fiber fill. Set aside until you have them all done. Take some scraps of muslin you cut off to make rectangles to cover the slits you made in the back of your bats. Using fabric glue, attach over the slit or you can stitch the slits closed with a needle & thread before covering with the scrap fabric, which is what I did.
Paint the bats, one side at a time, set aside to dry. The paint dries pretty quickly, so by the time you finish the last bat, your first one will probably be dry. Turn them over and paint the back side, making sure to get all the fabric painted, you don’t want any of the muslin fabric showing through. Set aside to dry. Once these are completely dry, scrunch them up and take some sand paper to them, gently. You don’t want to remove all the paint you just added, you just want to distress them alittle.
The last step is to add the ribbon on the top for tying onto the rag garland, spooky gift bags, the ceiling hooks in your dungeon, etc. I did this by hand, with just a few tacking stitches.
(If you wish to further embellish these bats, add a painted wooden sign around their necks with wire, stitch on button eyes, or add some glue backed red rhinestones! Whatever your heart desires. Just have some fun with these little critters! :-D Cindy)

Well that's it folks for the October Zine-I hope it will bring you hours of pleasure. We are hosting some other fun on our yahoo group-link is in the sidebar. October fun begins with a Lottery-hosted by Sharon. This lottery consists of either art studio or digital 2" x 2" creations-like this one:



Brushes Used are courtesy of: AnnikaVonHoldt
For every 31 "Twininchies" thrown in the cauldron this month, there will be one winner who will receive all 31 entries. We just started this challenge and already we are working on our 2nd victim, ughhh, winner. :-D For a really fun treat-visit Sharon's Blog

Also, we have a fun new challenge that was posted this morning! Create a Pumpkin Shrine and win a Trick or Treat Goodie bag, direct from my art studio to your front door, via the delivery broom! Or Postperson, lady, man, whichever is available. The awesome workshop this month, hosted by: Lynn S. is called: "Silver Spoon" and it's a terrific jewelry project that uses resin or Diamond Glaze to create a layout of goodies in the bowl of a spoon. Or if you prefer to create on a flat surface, here is a photo of a bracelet I made using a bracelet blank from CraftersCafe.



These are just a few of the fun art projects we will be creating this month. We also have some new digital tutorials from Tanya coming, so come join us! The link is in the sidebar! We'd love to have you come sit for a spell!
Want to go on the longest blog train ever assembled? The Ghost Train started today, the first of October and has lots of freebies for everyone! click: GhostTrain to get you started!

2 comments:

Carolyn said...

Cindy, at my age I missed the boat. I don't think an acorn can help at this stage of my life.

Carolyn

Lynn Stevens said...

Cindy, What an interesting zine, some really fun facts I'd never heard of before. As for Phrenology I think all my bumps say about me is that I hit my head to offen! LOL
Thanks for A great write up and for the patterns and inspiration!