DIY Christmas Gnomes
I have been admiring all the gnomes I see in the stores and on Pinterest. So I decided to take a shot at a DIY Christmas gnomes. This fun project is pretty cheap and it was fun for my daughter to help out too.
Supplies for Gnomes
I found those cute socks in the dollar spot at Target. Use rice to fill the socks (a way cheaper alternative to the fillers sold in craft stores). You will need yarn for the pom-poms and her hair, ribbon for her hair ties, fiberfill stuffing, and an old nylon stocking for their noses.
Must Haves
felt by the yard-the squares you get at the craft store aren’t big enough
Additional Supplies
HTV glitter vinyl-my favorite brand
Sewing Machine
My Inspiration
I saw a Pin for DIY Christmas gnomes by Sewcanshe.com. She offers a printable pattern. The hat in her pattern is perfect! After a little contemplation, I decided to skip the arms and legs and just make a body. I wanted a longer beard, so I drew my own template based on her basic shape. You can grab my beard pattern here.
Making the Body
Pour two tall glasses of rice into a sock. Stretch the opening of the sock over the glass and turn the glass upside to pour the rice into the sock.
Knot off the top like you would a balloon.
Next, use the pattern to cut the faux fur into the beard. Attach the beard to the body with a bead of glue from the hot glue gun.
For the girl gnome, I made braids with yarn. Each braid used three sections of 25 lengths of yarn. This was ultra-cheap and thin yarn. I wish the braids were a little thicker. I recommend using a thicker yarn. Attach the braids like the beard.
If I did it over, I would place the braids closer together, so it looks like the hair is covering the gnomes face.
Making the Hat
Use the hat template from Sew Can She. Pin the pattern to folded felt.
For the girl’s hat, I applied HTV snowflakes I made with my Cricut. You can grab my handy chart for Cricut EasyPress temperatures and fabrics here. (It’s the perfect size to attach to your Cricut for quick reference.)
Either pin the hat together and stitch the back seam, or you can use hot glue. Make a pom-pom with this handy little gadget. The directions are very confusing. Watch this video to learn how to make great pom-poms. Use a dab of hot glue to attach the pom-pom to the hat. Fill the end of the hat with fiber-fill to maintain its shape. Place a little more fiber-fill in the rest of the hat, and attach the hat to the body with hot glue.
I always second-guess myself. I didn’t like the little wooden noses. They were too small. I used a ped and fiber-fill to make them bigger noses.
Bigger is definitely better when it comes to gnome noses.
