Floating Ghosts

$25 - $30 (based on 2018 prices)

Makes three ghosts

For the ghost theme, which was part of my office’s annual decorating competition, I decided to fabricate three hanging specters to haunt the hallways and I wanted them to look like the floating white sheets often depicted in vintage supernatural short stories and movies. To make them appear ancient, I coffee stained the fabric to give it an aged patina, but you could stick with the classic white.

• Six white sheer curtains (54” x 84”)
• One yard of white sheer ribbon
• One yard of twine
• At least four tablespoons of dark roasted coffee grounds
• One pan large enough to soak the fabric curtains
• Three Styrofoam skulls
• One 4 oz. bottle of all-purpose tacky glue*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• Six sheets of cream-colored creepy cloth
  

1. To prevent myself from coffee staining each curtain individually, I balled up the panels and bound them with twine. This allowed me to fit all six items into the pan with the ribbon resting below them.

2. Boil enough water to completely submerge the curtains and ribbon and pour it into the pan. Add the coffee. The longer you allow the coffee to brew, the darker the stain will become. Likewise, greater amounts of coffee will produce a richer stain. Submerge the items in the coffee mixture and soak them until they reach the color you desire. I soaked mine for four days and scattered the coffee grounds over the top of the fabric to add spots. Remove the items from the water and allow them to dry. If you plan for a more traditional ghostly white, you can skip these first two steps. Likewise, you can purchase curtains and ribbon in an off-white color to achieve the same aged patina without the effort.

3. Center the skulls on the first set of curtains and, starting at their face, glue the cloth to them. I found that this step works best if you move in stages: apply a layer of glue to one section, hold the fabric down until it sticks, and then repeat the process. You may need to apply ample amounts of glue in the eye sockets and nasal cavities to get the fabric to hold their forms.

4. Once the glue has dried, smudge black paint around the eyes, mouths, and noses to give the skulls a smoky appearance. You may want to experiment with a scrap of cloth before applying the paint to the fabric.

5. Center the skulls on the second set of curtains and glue the fabric to the tops of their heads. You want this particular layer to be free flowing, so do not glue the cloth to the face.

6. Cut the ribbon into three twelve-inch sections, form a loop, and attached it to the crowns of the skulls. Depending on how low you want the ghosts to hang, you can adjust the measurements to fit your needs.

7. Adhere two sheets of creepy cloth to each ghost – one on the front and one on the back. Akin to the second layer of curtains, you want this additional coat to be free flowing, so only attach it to the tops of the skulls. You can embellish the ghosts further by adding dustings of brown spray paint to simulate dirt and shredding the ends of the curtains to form tattered edges. I, however, elected to maintain a cleaner appearance to correspond with the haunt’s theme. 

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.