What a great time I’ve had making these Gnomes even some for the fall season with leaves and spiders in the beards and hats.
Three handmade Gnomes.
I made the two on fall themed Gnomes using wood blocks I found at Micheal’s during the fall season decor display. I painted them a solid color and then painting a fall leaf pattern from a template on the front and back (sorry, don’t have a picture of that). I purchased about a 1/4 yard of the two different furs for the beards (I needed at least that much for the length to cover the wood block which is 9” x 6” x 1”). In order to determine the length and width of the beard, I laid the fur over the painted wood block and dipped in down a little to allow for where I planned to place the nose before I cut the fur. Once I cut the beard, I hot glued it to wood block in a half circle shape leaving room for the nose.
The nose is made from a flesh colored hose. I had to guess how large I would need to cut the circle from the hose so I stuffed a bit of poly-fill a little at a time holding my thumb and fingers around the hose until I got a shape that fit the size of the gnome. Then I cut the circle out of the hose and used a needle and doubled the thread, knotted the end of the thread to stitch around the edge of the circumference of the circle. Once the circle was stitched, I began to gather the circle together by pulling the thread against the knotted end while stuffing with poly-fill as I went along until it looked like a big, bulbous nose fit for a Gnome! I secured the thread by wrapping it several times around the base and tied it off, then hot blued it to the wood block just above the beard.
Now comes the hat. As I was checking out at the fabric store (I believe it was Joann’s) I saw a display of knee length fall patterned socks and purchased two sets. I took one sock from the fall leaf pattern and stuffed it with poly fill until it could be placed over the top of the wood block and able to stand upright. Since the socks have a maroon-colored toe, I hand stitched around the edge of that portion while pushing the poly-fill up into that area to form a ball at the top. Then wrapped yarn around the top, added a bell and a wood leaf decor that came with the fall wood block. I slipped the sock over the block and it held without having to be glued! yeah!
On both Gnomes, I used the same brown and white yard to wrap around the hat and hot glued it to the top - be flexible here and use whatever you have available . I then hot-glued a length of white faux fur around the edge of the hat on one of the Gnomes. The gnome with the white pom-pom - I first cut off the maroon area of the toe and stitched the hat together so the filling wouldn’t come out before I placed it onto the wood block. I purchased a pom-pom maker and made a white pom-pom (ready made pom-poms would work) for that gnomes hat and securely stitched it onto the top of the hat. (note:I stuffed the hats with poly-fill to keep them standing upright).
The feet are two felt pieces cut to a 2 1/2” oblong oval (like the shape of a shoe) then cut in half (I didn’t want them on the bottom of the block because it wouldn’t stand up straight. I sandwiched two of the felt pieces together, and as I saddle stitched around the outside edge. I lightly stuffed with poly-fill (that’s one shoe- repeat for second shoe). I hot glued them to the wood block by folding a slight 1/4” of the shoe up at the back, creasing it with a warm iron and then hot glued it at the front of the bottom of the base (not underneath). To finished I added , bells, wood leaf and spiders for a little added fall decoration.
The gnome with the red hat is from a pattern I found on Etsy (shop name is Happy Heart Patterns).
Found these at Micheal’s. Removed the decorations, painted the front and back (but you could skip that step if you liked them just as they are. The beard covers the front anyway.
The Gnome on the aspen log I made from a patter I found on Etsy. The other I created using a styrofoam cone.
This guys has a burgundy hat made from a sock, his body is a blue, red and white plaid flannel. I used a 1/4” wide length of leather to wrap around his hat and embellished with a bell then tucked a small, Christmas branch decor into the crook of his arm.