Halloween Here We Come...

Here at fashion file headquarters we love to celebrate Halloween and go to great lengths to dress up and have fun. So here are a few moments of past fun and tips on decorations...

I love this picture of Phin & Mini. They both look so perfectly non-plussed about having to dress up. Both their outfits are from my favourite place to buy Halloween costumes - Pottery Barn and the most exciting thing is they now ship outside the U.S.A not only do they do the sweetest and highest quality costumes but i adore their co-ordinating Halloween bags which you can have personalised to boot. Perfect for not confusing your sweetie haul with anyone elses!


 

I co host a party every year with Mini's godmummy and one of my best friends Karen. Her street is filled with Americans who take Halloween very seriously so there is alot of competition on the street when it comes to decoration. My specialty are the pumpkins. I do free style designs but for great templates and ideas check out the guru of all things stylish on the home front Martha Stewart The way i make my pumkins is by carving out the inside, especially on the front section. I then draw my design with a permanent marker and use lino cutting tools (available from art shops) to gradually pick away at the pumpkin flesh so that only a ver thin layer of flesh is left. I then paint the remaining surface in black acrylic paint (better than oil as it drys super quick) and then once i place a candle or electric lights inside the cutout flesh glows with a beautiful eerie quality. Real spooky.




 


 
We also go to town on the decorations, adding new ones each year from giant arachnids to hanging pumpkin ghosts from the tree and covering all the railings in spooky spiders webs. all available from party stores and the larger supermarkets.

You cant go wrong with Gap's glow in the dark pyjamas. My kids just adore wearing them.

Phin was obsessed with the Gruffalo and so i decided to make Tom his very own Gruffalo outfit out of brown felt. i stuffed a pillow down the front to create the paunch and crafted the head over an old baseball hat. Meanwhile Mini's outfit of a little chicken was made using two white John Lewis bodies and two feather boas tacked around the centre. I then added pillow stuffing in between the bodies to pad it out and made the feet out of two pieces of yellow felt sewn together in the shape of duck feet and i slipped them over her tights like socks. The chick hat i picked up at Portabello market.

Here are our friends Alex and Ari with their kids Alastair and Aurelia all kitted out as the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We love the family theme!

Last year we really went to town. Both Phin and Mini were getting Star Wars obsessed (much like their parents) so we decided to embark on a family and friends theme. Phin went as Han Solo in the guise of a storm trooper but Mini was really the piece de la resistance with her R2D2 outfit. I made it using two lampshades from Homebase which i covered in white gaffer tape and then cut out various shapes in blue and silver electrical tape to make the panels. i then used more gaffer tape to create two shoulder straps. I bought her a pair of silver leggings from American Apparel to wear underneath and her hat was made from the top of a bin lid and her light sabre was fashioned from a swimming woggle again covered in electrical tape.

Here we all are as a gang. Tom was Luke Skywalker in his X-Wing pilot outfit, our friend Alice is C3PO and her sons Bill and Sam are a Java and Darth Vader. While I wore an old dressing gown of my grandmothers, an old gold belt and my Vivienne Westwood pirate boots to create my Princess Lea look.

Mini and I as you know are huge Biscuiteers fans, baking our own and icing them. Here are some their fantastic Halloween ones. i adore these severed fingers, so ghoulish and the Mexican day of the Dead ones are so pretty.

 If you want to get tips on how to ice your own check out their Icing How-To on You Tube and i hope we've inspired you all to have fun creating a weird and wonderful Happy Halloween