Zero the Ghost Dog

This year we added to our Nightmare Before Christmas life-size collection.

Last year we made Jack Skellington, tutorial here.

 

We made the next character and went with the easier option by making the ghost dog, Zero.

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So zero is pretty simple.  I started by making a wire skeleton. 

The joints were secured with duct tape strips.

I WISH I'D SPRAYED THE FRAME WITH WHITE PRIMER SPRAY PAINT AT THIS POINT.

 I added a cheap Christmas red bulb for the nose, taping it to the wire head frame.

Then to make the skin or ghost layer, I had a thin mesh from JoAnn.

It was in their Halloween fabrics and the end of the bolt called it "ghoul fabric".

Basically cheesecloth or anything that looks gauze like would work.

So I just laid the fabric and hand sewed it to the wire frame, just quickly looping the stitch around the sides.

The body of the dog was one big pieces just draped.

The head was sewn in different sections around the different areas.  It was all just kind of hack and tack to get it covered.

Then for the eyes I cut 2 felt ovals and glued them to the head. 

 So now Zero joins his master on our front porch.

He actually hangs on the other side of the front door from fishing line to look like he's a hovering ghost dog.

I'm hoping next year I'll feel up to making a life-size Sally to finish the trio.