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Keep this gnome friend around to bestow holiday magic (and maybe just wrap a gift or two!). Never needle felt before? Read up on the basics -you can do it!
Grab the supplies:
Roving in Peacock, Crimson + Latte (or your choice of skin color).
Bits of roving in Black and White
White curls roving
Needle felting needle -the 'refill' pack is all you need!
Needle felting foam (always needle felt on foam + keep an eye out on your fingers!)
You can make our gnome friend -even if you have never felted before! You'll find it helpful to read up on the basics of felting first (you want to keep those fingers safe!)
1. You can make your gnome any size you would like -ours are about 6-7" tall. First take a 10" strip of your base color (we used Peacock), wind tightly around a thin dowel or pencil. Gently pull off of pencil and needle felt in place. You can see from the photo the start and how you would like your finished body to look. Pro tip: Don't forget to felt in the top and bottom of your gnome body or you will end up will a super tall and skinny gnome!
2. Then take a 10" strip of your hat color (we used Crimson) and thin out the top (you will do this by pulling out roving) to form an angle (as shown). This will help form the cone of your hat.
3. Wind the crimson roving around the thin dowel into a cone shape and felt into place. Add in details of the hat folds. You can see the beginning felting stages on the left and the finished hat on the right. Feel free to add in more roving to obtain the desired shape.
4. Needle felt a sphere shaped head, needle felt to gnome base. Tip, to be speedy we used a Medium Latte felt pom.
5. Needle felt just a bit of white roving into the back of the head -it's the gnomes hair!
6. After the hat is attached to the head take extra Crimson roving and wrap around base of hat and head, needle felt till firm.
7. Roll a small ball of skin colored roving (we used Latte) into a ball, needle felt until firm and attach to face, lining up right under the base of the hat.
8. Add the curls! Gently place the curls just where you would like your gnomes face to be. If needed, arrange and fold curls where you would like felting into place.
9. Take the tiniest wisp of black roving (much smaller then the photo shows!), roll between fingers to form into a small ball and felt eyes into place.
You can give so much personality to your gnomes just by adjusting the side and folds of the hat -or even how big you make his gnomes! A gnome friend will always leave good cheer!
