I get sent a link to the Martha Stewart site by a friend. She had a guy on there showing how to make skeletons out of a pair of white socks. It was so cute, I just had to show the kids. Sophie got super excited, and wanted to make one right away. So we started going through Chris' sock drawer to find a suitable pair. He, however, didn't think that was such a great idea to take a perfectly good pair of his socks, only to cut it up for a craft project. Graciously, he dug through all his socks to find us a pair that only had two tiny holes, and gave those to us instead. I also went through my sock drawer and found another pair with a few small holes. So now, Sophie and I could each make one.
The pattern was a bit hard for me to figure out at first, but after I was finally able to download the video, it all made perfect sense. They came together pretty quickly, except for the fact that we ran out of stuffing. I had to make a quick run to the fabric store the next morning so we could finish our skeleton children in time for Halloween. Turning the legs and arms right side out after sewing them together was the hardest part, as they were pretty skinny and hard to work with. When they were all stuffed, we sewed on the eyes and used black embroidery floss to make the mouth and ribs. They ended up having nice big bums where the heel of the sock used to be, but that makes them good for sitting on a shelf as decoration. Ours spent no time on a cold hard shelf, however. The socks were so soft and worn, that the skeletons ended up being rather cuddly, and Sophie loves to sleep with them. She even let Sarah have one, although she didn't do any of the work.
She named them Boo and Who, and laughs every time she says it. Thanks Martha for finding another great idea to share.