December 2018

For quite a while, I've been wanting to make a furry, lil, gnome guy. Then, my Sissy sent me photos of some she collected for her holiday display and I was freshly motivated to make one for her as a gift (and a few more too)

I chose to give these a holiday theme, with the mica flaked caps, mercury ornament noses, and tinsel trim, but of course, gnomes aren't just made to hang out with Santa's elves, they can be enjoyed year round without the festive additions.  A nose can be a wooden ball, or a pom pom. You can leave the tinsel or glitter off.  (Oh, but why leave them un-glittered??? Glitter is a daily adornment around here, not just a holiday foof!)

I started with a styrofoam ball, a rectangle of felted wool, and a pom pom.

You could also use a wooden ball for the head, or a smaller styrofoam ball.  You can exchange the felted wool for regular felt or other fabric, too.  In the picture of the gnome trio, above, the red and blue are felt, the pink and tan is a wool sweater I got at Goodwill and felted. Either works.

Although, I noticed that my favorite glue in the world, The Ultimate, doesn't do as well on felt as it does on natural fabrics and I switched to FabricFusion instead.

To begin, I sliced the bottom off of the large ball with a serrated knife, to make a flat surface that allowed the critter to stand up.

Then, I covered the ball with glue (NOT THE FLAT BOTTOM PART) and wrapped the fabric around it.

I pinch pleated and folded the top down, pressing it into the glue.

With scissors, I trimmed excess, top and bottom.

Next, I glued the smaller ball to the top as a head.

On mine, I added the beard and hair (made of wool roving, found at Hobby Lobby or Walmart) at this point.  I discovered that it would be easier to decorate the torso before adding the beard, because I was holding the hair out of the way to attach buttons and a belt.

So, if you want the body decorated, do that first.  I'm afraid it doesn't really show much, if you have a glorious beard flowing down his belly, so the belt and buttons are sort of optional.

To add them, simply cut a string, ribbon, bit of twine, or whatever you'd like to use, to fit around his midsection. Glue in place, and top with something to emulate a belt buckle. I chose a small rhinestone cluster.  Then, add a row of buttons made from either actual buttons (the smaller the better) or beads, or crystals.  Do 3 dabs of glue down the center of his body, and place the baubles into the glue and you are done.

The beard is wool roving (or dacron if you'd rather) is pressed into glue on his face, and then arranged to look beard shaped.  Don't be stingy with it, these guys are just about lost in the hair.  Add some around the back of his head too, but not as much or as long as the beard on his face.

I'm all about no-sew projects.  And no-measuring too. I found that the felted wool worked perfectly with gluing, but the regular felt did better with a bit of stitching.  It wasn't too much, so I struggled my way through it, thinking I was being really brave about facing my nemesis- the dreaded thread and needle- when my pal, Beth, took it away from me and quickly sewed it up.  I have a feeling that she really wanted to sew my mouth shut too, but settled for just fixing the hat for  me.

I like hats that are tall, and have a bend in them.  To get the bend, I glued a pipe cleaner inside the triangle I had cut to make the hat.  

The triangle was cut extra big, and then held in place on his head to see about what size it should be, trimmed to fit and then put together (with glue or stitching).  After, I glued it to his head.  

Here is a back side of the red gnome to see how much hair I gave him.  

As you can see, the face is mostly hat and hair.  

He has a small, vintage, shiny brite bead as his nose.

This hat has a rim that is actually the seam of the felted sweater, which was a serendipitous accident. I just happened to be using up little remnants of the material and this is what I had. 

The arms are little rectangles glued in half and added to the body.  I cut out mitten shapes and stuck them into the sleeve opening. Mittens are as simple as an oval with a thumb. If you aren't comfortable with that shape, a plain oval works too.

Left on their own, the arms will stand straight out.  You can glue something, like this mini tree to one.

On this one, I glued a puppy charm onto his sleeve and glued it to his beard, so he looks like he is hugging his pet.

I've added mica flakes of glitter to their hats.  And trimmed some in tinsel, some in other glitter.  You can add a tiny jingle bell, or bead, or tinsel to the tip of the hat too.

(I gave the blue one some iridescent sea shells because he is a beach gnome for Sissy)

The red one for Guncle Randy, the Pet Butler, is also holding puppies and has a sequin trimmed hat.

All of these gentlemen have a lot of personality and charm.  And are easy to personalize by your trimmings and color choices.