dolores and zolores (the ghost sisters of Halloween)

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Dolores - day

Dolores - night

Zolores - Day

Zolores - night

Obviously, I love Halloween (see Halloween or my Instagram for just how obvious it is). Dolores is a “ghost” I created a few years ago to continue building our outdoor decor. This is before the addition of the spiders and spiderwebs, as well as Sam. The first time we hung Dolores from the tree outside with the wind lightly blowing and the solar light casting on her an eerie glow, I literally ran back inside. My husband laughed out loud watching me wheel in with all my might.

Recently I’ve seen rip-offs of my design at Target for $30. Mine cost $10 for the mannequin head and $3 for the cheesecloth. Everything else I had in the house.

Dolores was creepy, but of course with all first creations she had a few issues that I wasn’t able to overcome in the first iteration. For example, she hung strangely off a hook in the back of her neck. I resolved to get this right the next time.

When I decided to make a second Dolores or Dolores V2, with a bit of a better structure and hanging ability, I figured I would name her another old fashioned name, like Gwendolyn or Gertrude. Alas, my 8 year old had an opinion, and decided we should name her Zolores. The rest is, as they say, history.

Supplies

Low temp glue gun. You can use a high-temp at your own peril. I have taken layers of skin off, so no thank you.
Glue sticks. Obviously
Mannequin head
Cheesecloth
Old white t-shirts or old white fabric
Tea bags
Wire hanger
Meat thermometer or skewer (I’ll explain I promise)

*Using the meat thermometer to push a pilot hole into the mannequin head*

Instructions

*The steps I took to pull a hanger apart and create a hook for Zolores head. This hangs perfectly on a shepherd’s hook or porch hook.*

Brew some black tea. Pour it into a bucket or fill the sink with it.
Take the white t-shirt or fabrics and cut it into strips. The more ragged and uneven the better.
Take the t-shirt or fabric and dunk it into tea. Let it sit there for a few hours, preferably. Once done, let it dry overnight. You can rinse it and throw it in the dryer to speed the process. Note: you can use strong coffee for this step, but did not want my yard smelling like Starbucks every time the wind blew.
Cut the hanger in the center and straighten it out.
Take the mannequin head and use the metal meat thermometer or the skewer and drive it through the top middle of the head. Then remove it. This is a pilot hole for the hanger.
Take the straightened hanger and push it through the hole and through the bottom of the mannequin neck.
Mold the two hanger pieces that are now at the base of the neck into shoulders. This will help give some depth to the ghost, so it’s not just a head, but also disembodied shoulders too.
Take the tea-stained fabric strips and begin gluing them to the back of the mannequin head, essentially creating hair.
Take the remainder of the strips and glue them along the neck of the mannequin, which essentially help camouflage where the head begins and ends.
You can add additional fabric strips to cover the hanger shoulders if you feel the rest of the strips aren’t cover them.
Cut the cheesecloth lengthwise into two mostly even pieces. This doesn’t have to be perfect.
Cut the cheesecloth lengthwise into two mostly even pieces. This doesn’t have to be perfect.
Glue the first piece of cheesecloth to the top of the mannequin head in the middle facing the back of the head. The shortest side is what you are gluing to the head so the length hangs down like a shroud.
Glue the second piece to the top of the mannequin head in the middle facing the front, connecting with the first piece. It can overlap.
Take the hanging pieces of cheesecloth from the front and the back and glue them together starting at the head and down about halfway. This prevents the cheesecloth pieces from looking completely disconnected, but still sways in the breeze better than if you sew the pieces together.
Hang from your porch or on a shepherd’s hook. Shine a solar flood light on it for a really spooky effect.