The cute little gnomes that are popping up everywhere are just too cute! I attended an ornament exchange party and just knew I needed to make a few cute gnomes to take for the exchange.
I planned on just using a free pattern I found online, but didn’t seem to like how any of the gnomes turned out. So I put together my own little pattern. Here’s what I did . . .
Supplies
- Free Pattern (download below)
- Neutral Knit Fabric
- Rice
- Filler Stuffing
- Hair Elastic or String
- Faux Fur
- Scupley Baking Clay or Wood Ball
- Old Sweater
- Galvanized Steel Wire
- Hot Glue Gun
Step 1: Gather Supplies
Clarification on supplies. . .
For the gnome hat, you can purchase some knit socks to use for the fabric (as most do), but I found that for $8 socks I only could make 2 gnome hats. So, I headed to the local thrift store to find some gently used sweaters instead. I bought most of my sweaters for $3 to $5 and can make SO MANY gnome hats with each sweater.
For the gnome nose, you can purchase a few wood balls for the nose (as most do), but I couldn’t seem to find any the right size. So, I bought some Sculpey Baking Clay to make my own noses.
Step 2: Pattern/Cut Fabrics
Download my free pattern and begin cutting out your fabric.
Note: For the gnome hat, you want to make sure the bottom of the hat is on a finished edge. For example, use a sweater sleeve and place the bottom of the pattern at the wrist of the sweater. Then you are using the finished edge of the sweater for the bottom of your hat.
Step 3: Gnome Body
**NOTE: For any questions on how to sew together the gnome body please view Modique’s video.**
Sew together the two body pieces on the sides and then sew on the body base. Fill the body with about 2 tablespoons of rice. Stuff the remainder of the body with filler stuffing and use a string or small hair elastic to close the body.
Step 4: Gnome Face
When using the pattern to cut out the gnome beard from the faux fur be careful not to cut all the way through. For clarification watch Modique’s video.
For the gnome nose, I shaped little balls out of the baking clay and baked for 20 minutes in a 275 degree oven. I ended up making 10 noses out of .5 oz of clay.
Step 5: Gnome Hat
STOP, please view the note in Step 2 before cutting your gnome hat!
So the pattern piece of this is really weirdly shaped, but it the only way I could come up with a way to have the top skinny enough to be shaped into a swirl or zig-zag.
Sew together the sides and turn the hat right side out using a pencil. Be patient it will take a minute since it will be very skinny.
Now fill the hat with stuffing, use the pencil to work the stuffing all the way to the top.
Now the wire, I used galvanized steel wire because it is a little harder to bend and wouldn’t misshape easily if played with by my kids. I tried many techniques (sewing it to fabric, just pushing to the top, just sewing at the top, etc.) for the wire in the hat. My favorite method was to push the wire all the way through, shape hat to desired shape, then just cut off the extra wire and it won’t even be visible at the top, really! 
Note: For the striped hat, I used a pair of old knit pajama pants and the bottom of a sweater sleeve. I just sewed the two together and then proceeded to cut out the pattern and make the hat. 
Step 6: Assemble
Now hot glue the beard and the nose to the body. I like the beard to just rest on the table when attached.
Gluing the hat to the body can be a little tricky. Make a little hole in the stuffing for the body to easily fit into.
Now I glued the area around the nose first, making sure the hat came down around it a little. Then I glued the back of the hat making sure it came down almost all the way to the bottom of the body. After that was done I glued the sides down, you will notice when viewing the side of the gnome the hat edge angles down, going from the nose down to almost the bottom of the gnome’s back.
