This is a great high-impact (and easy!) outside decoration for Halloween. If you can use materials commonly found around the house, it's also inexpensive!

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

- All of those plastic bags from the grocery store that you've been meaning to get rid and can't believe you have so many

I was also able to use thick plastic sheeting that a friend's new mattress had arrived in. Using found materials scrounged from your friends can significantly lower your costs.

- 2 white tall kitchen trashbags

- Clear packing tape

- 2-3 packages of store-bought cobwebs

- Sheer white fabric (optional)

- Hardware to make hanging your cocooned victim possible (depending on your porch's needs)

e.g. I was able to use a pre-existing hook on the porch ceiling, and use thin white nylon rope for additional security.

Step 2: Assemble the Form

Start wadding up the plastic grocery bags to create a human-like form, using the tall white kitchen trash bags to help contain the grocery bags.

E.g. Create a ball-shaped wad of bags for the head and use the clear packing tape to hold it together. Stuff this inside a white trash bag while creating a cylinder of grocery bags for the neck. Secure the neck with more packing tape.

Create a roughly rectangular wad of grocery bags for the shoulders.

Don't worry about legs or arms. Once you get to the shoulders, think of the form as a slightly flattened tapering cylinder as if the arms have been bound to the torso, and the legs bound together. Use the second white trash bag to make this step a little easier to contain.

Step 3: Cover the Form With Sheer Fabric (optional)

I didn't have enough cobwebs to effectively cover the plastic form, so I used some sheer white fabric left over from another project. Covering the plastic form with another layer will give it a slightly more realistic look and make sure the shiny plastic isn't visible.

For this step you can use white fabric (an old sheet would work), sheer white fabric, cheesecloth, or a ton of cobwebs. You can judiciously use clear packing tape to secure the fabric because it will be hidden in the next step.

Step 4: Suspend Your Cocooned Victim

My spider victim was going on my porch, so I was able to suspend him by looping a bit of fabric on one of our flower pot hooks. He was then secured against the rail with thin nylon rope to make sure he didn't flop about in the bad weather and high winds.

How precisely you hang your cocoon will depend on where you're putting him.

Step 5: Add the Webs!

Now for the most fun step!

Start by draping spiderwebs around your victim. Use the cobwebs to hide any visible packing tape, and emphasize the appearance that the webs are actually holding a body and are actually suspended from the porch ceiling by creating solid lines of cobweb from top to bottom.

Once your body has a suitably cocooned appearance, add more webs around the entire porch.

Add any spiders you have. I also included a few skulls wrapped in spiderwebs and suspended from the webs to make it clear that this was not the first victim claimed by the spiders.