So this is where I am at this moment...do you see it? And, just to give you a chance to "run" now, this is a long post!
The newspaper underneath the hat is VERY visible. That means that the coat of black spray paint didn't fill in the openings in such a way that I won't have to still paint all of the black areas with craft paint. Since I enjoy painting on the burlap, that won't be a problem (except by the time I get to #6 I might be going just a bit crazy but that will be another story) except that I will need to buy MUCH more paint.
The other issue is that I am pretty sure I am going to need to do a full second coat on every color-which also translates to a LOT more paint needed. I'm not sure if this is because I'm doing it on the black burlap. I might have been able to do less painting with the orange on the "traditional" burlap beige but I think I would have had as hard a time getting a decent coverage on the purple and probably even worse on the black! Since I bought 3 yards of the black already, I will never know for sure because I am using what I have!
In any case, I always love to do a sample. I have figured out a few other little tricks that will make the rest of the witch hats a bit easier to paint. Now if I could just fix the temperature outside as easily! The A/C runs constantly and I'm still HOT! Can't wait for those witches to don these hats and really be flying past! Lol
I'm home from the dentist and have my grand daughter with me for the rest of the day but while she is busy with something on her own, I managed to get a second coat on the orange and purple. It could probably even use one more coat for really vibrant color, but I think I'm stopping here. Always subject to change.
I think when I do the rest, I will also give the black areas a second coat of craft paint. There are still too many places where the burlap is not solid but it is too late now to go back-no way I'm painting around all of those dots! I did find some WalMart bags in my stash that are gray so maybe they won't show through as much...we shall see. I'm off to begin the assembling. So excited! I'll soon find out if there are other tweaks to be made.
Now that the edges are sealed and this thing is stuffed with WAY more bags than I would have ever imagined - wish I had thought to count so I would know how many more I have to scavenge - I am even happier than ever that I chose to make a sample first. I usually do this when I craft with the kids so I can head off any pitfalls along the way but this time, I actually made it easier on myself as I tackle the remaining 5!
So do you see the most obvious thing that happened? If you saw my first post on this project, you might remember that I said I made it a bit wider because I knew that the stuffing would make the hat narrower. But, I didn't foresee that once the tip of the hat was stuffed, it would move over as it did. I had anticipated dangling a spider off of that tip and not sure that will work now but I kind of like the "jaunt" of it so it's not an issue. I'm sure if I was more technical I could figure out how to tweak the initial pattern so that didn't happen...but, I'm not.
Something else I've discovered on making so many of these is that the painted side of the burlap shrinks a bit from the wetness of the paint-I guess. And so, when the gluing happens, the back is a bit larger than the front. In most places this doesn't matter because you can just trim it after you're done but in rounded areas it seems to make a difference and you end up with lots of fabric on one side having to scrunch into little fabric on the other and wanting to make little pleats or shirrs like when you're setting in sleeves when sewing. I somehow discovered that it MATTERS which side the glue is being applied to. When I can see I am running into this problem, I simply flip the whole thing over and apply the glue onto the other side and I have not had any problems. I'm sure this is TMI for most of you but just in case anyone takes a notion to actually try this craft her/him-self, I thought I would pass along my tips.
And, as weird as it is to say as I'm the queen of buying good tools and maintaining them, these are, in my opinion, the three most necessary tools needed for these projects...as well as a good, sharp pair of fabric scissors.
I think I have shown you the little, cut-off chip bristled brush. It works so well to scrub in the paint. I'm sure a large sized stiff stencil brush would do the job as well but I don't have any large enough and, since I really don't like these inexpensive brushes for any "real" painting, cutting this one off didn't bother me at all.
And then there are the true necessities-the broken off, wood paint stirrer and the chopstick. They are invaluable for the assembly process. The chop stick helps push the bags into small spaces like the tip of this hat and the paint stirrer helps in the larger areas. The broken edge was just an accident. My grand daughter snapped off the rest of it to do some project she was working on. When I grabbed it to help shove in countless bags, I discovered that that broken end actually worked best as it kind of caught the bag as it went and you could "scrunch" so much more easily.
And then, the flat end really helps to push the two sides of fabric together after they are loaded with hot glue. Ask me how I figured that one out. The burlap is a very loose weave and the glue seeps out onto whatever might be pushing on it-like my fingers more than once. I might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it didn't take me too long to figure this one out!
Since I'm really not the most patient person in the world and I just HAD to see how this will look completed, I went ahead and made up a bow with Halloween ribbon I had left over from past projects. The last time I checked, Halloween was just beginning to get on to the store shelves and there was no ribbon just yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Michaels will have more of that multi-colored dot ribbon again this year. We shall see. I might even add a few other embellishments when I see what is showing up this year but for now, here we are and I am so excited. Now on to the next five. Stay tuned.
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