Inspired by our family's favorite Halloween movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas
," I decided to offer a little softie pattern to make my favorite character "Sally" into a bean-bag, ornament, or pincushion. October is the Halloween-themed "Sew a Softie" month blog hop, so I thought I'd get a jump on the tutorial!
Certainly the wisest and most caring character in Halloweentown, she is also an adept seamstress and generally crafty in all of her endeavors of the movie. Relating to her on a pretty intense level (I mean she's also a gardener, how can she not be my Halloween spirit animal?!), she served as inspiration for my actual costume a few years ago.
Despite being raised in a super intense religious community as a child (we weren't allowed to celebrate Halloween until I was 14 and any movie containing witches, or the like, was "the devil's influence"), I love the holiday as an adult!
Making costumes, free candy, decorating pumpkins, and celebrating the closing of life, just as the cool winds begin withering the leaves, Halloween also marks the final break from the GAWD-awful subtropical Texas heat, since summer actually lasts March to October 31st here.
Nightmare Before Christmas is such a fun movie and one of my boys' favorites! Something I especially love about it is that, despite so many Halloween characters LOOKING terrifying throughout the movie (and also dealing with some scary action sequences), the whole goal of the story is to show that these characters aren't trying to hurt anyone, they just want to experience the fun of a good "BOO!!"
Enough of my love of the movie, let's get to the tutorial!
For your Sally, you'll need:
," I decided to offer a little softie pattern to make my favorite character "Sally" into a bean-bag, ornament, or pincushion. October is the Halloween-themed "Sew a Softie" month blog hop, so I thought I'd get a jump on the tutorial!
Certainly the wisest and most caring character in Halloweentown, she is also an adept seamstress and generally crafty in all of her endeavors of the movie. Relating to her on a pretty intense level (I mean she's also a gardener, how can she not be my Halloween spirit animal?!), she served as inspiration for my actual costume a few years ago.
Despite being raised in a super intense religious community as a child (we weren't allowed to celebrate Halloween until I was 14 and any movie containing witches, or the like, was "the devil's influence"), I love the holiday as an adult!
Making costumes, free candy, decorating pumpkins, and celebrating the closing of life, just as the cool winds begin withering the leaves, Halloween also marks the final break from the GAWD-awful subtropical Texas heat, since summer actually lasts March to October 31st here.
Nightmare Before Christmas is such a fun movie and one of my boys' favorites! Something I especially love about it is that, despite so many Halloween characters LOOKING terrifying throughout the movie (and also dealing with some scary action sequences), the whole goal of the story is to show that these characters aren't trying to hurt anyone, they just want to experience the fun of a good "BOO!!"
Enough of my love of the movie, let's get to the tutorial!
For your Sally, you'll need:
- Free Sally Sewing Pattern
- Light Blue wool felt
- red wool felt
- white wool felt
- black embroidery thread
- small sewing kit (assemble your own in a recycled mint tin here)
First, you'll need to cut out all of the shapes according to the pattern (red for lips and hair pieces, white for the eyes, and light blue for her face).
Sew or glue the facial pieces of felt to her blue skin (I used a back stitch in a matching thread color).
Next, mark the embroidery stitches of her face, nose, and eyelashes (which I totally forgot to add to mine before sewing her up🙈) with a pencil or Disappearing Ink Marking Pen
. Then, use a back stitch to trace your marks. For her pupils, I used French knots, but you could also use small black beads.
. Then, use a back stitch to trace your marks. For her pupils, I used French knots, but you could also use small black beads.
Once satisfied with your stitch work, use a blanket stitch to attach her hair to the back of her head. When you come round to the bottom of her hair, keeping your last stitch a little loose will make the blanket stitch easier to do on top of the back piece of felt (see photo below).
Before closing your Sally, stuff her head with pollyfill, wool, beans, or other filling, and knot your thread.
Before closing your Sally, stuff her head with pollyfill, wool, beans, or other filling, and knot your thread.
I hope you have fun making these pretties for Halloween and Christmas! If you'd like to see more tutorials or receive updates from my Etsy shop, feel free to follow me on Instagram or Pinterest!
Until next time, hugs!
Until next time, hugs!
What a great tutorial. I've never seen the movie but Sally actually seems like a sweetie :) Thanks for being part of Sew a Softie for Halloween!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's a great movie and thank you for organizing the blog hop!
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