Gnomes Part III - Boots

For my army of little woolen gnomes, I'm trying outfit them for a cold winter. Woolen tunics, warm hats, fuzzy leggings, and of course nice leather boots to keep little feet warm and dry!

I rounded up some scraps of leather, I tried to use thin leather so I won't need to poke holes before sewing.

 I used a simple baby bootie pattern and scaled it down. There's a little foot shaped base, and a strip of leather long enough to go around it, with mitered corners. I stitched around the edge of the bottom, then stitched up the front where the two edges meet.

 For extra awesomeness be sure to have each flap cross a different direction, a matching pair!

I stuffed them with a little bit of wool and sewed them onto the bottoms of felted legs. I'm worried that they won't stay all that well, but so far it's working...

My gnomes can stand now! Next step - "Look Ma, No Hands..." (They need little mittens! I have decided against knitting itty-bitty mitts with lace thread and 00 needles.)

Gnomes Part II - Old Man Eyebrows

 I've been stitching up dozens of little shirts for my gnome project, and after all that small tedious work it's time to stab something!

These are the heads for the gnomes, needle felted for maximum cute. I start out by needle felting a ball of skin colored wool roving (pale if you please, these are men of the far north!) into a roughly spherical shape. I make it a little more boxy and oval as I add details. At this stage it's not super densely packed.

I add the shaping of a face, first the indents for eyes, then the line of the mouth. Connect them with lines around the nose spot. I felted the sides down to make the cheeks round and full, and the brows fairly stuck-out. I then rolled up a very small ball and added that as a nose.

At that point it's time to add details - two little eyes in brown or green. A beard is made from Wensleydale curly locks in white or grey, and the shorter bits make some hair. The fluffy eyebrows are what make these little old men... well... old. (Sorry Dad, but you could shade your eyes with those brows of yours!)

There's no need for hair on top of the head, the tomté's wee red hat will cover it all, and keep them from being accidentally eaten by a friendly critter. Next step will be to put them all together with felted leggings, wee mittens, and leather boots! Stay tuned... same gnome time, same gnome channel.

Gnomes - Part 1 - Shirts

 As any crafty person knows, making gifts for the Yuletide starts in January. However, this is the season to kick it into high gear. I, for one, detest seeing Christmas stuff out before the first of December, but it does remind me to get moving on the making!

This year as a gift for most of my dear friends I am creating little gnomes, in the Tomte tradition of the north. We could all use a house helper no? These will be entirely woolen, the bodies felted and attached to these wee shirts.

I decided to break up the tedium, and encourage creativity by making this a learning experience. I dug out an old pamphlet of embroidery stitches, and I'm trying to incorporate new and different stitches into each shirt. I'm not sure how many I will end up with, one can cut out an awful lot of little shirts from a single piece of felt...

I've gotten started on the heads as well, they are rather more time consuming! I'll post more details as these little creatures come together. In the meantime, I'm off to leave a bowl of porridge for any wights that may be already around the house, I wouldn't want them to get involved in any mischief...

What are you making for giftmas?