Ornament Week: Wednesday

Next up on "Handmade Ornament Week" are these felt snowmen designed by Salem Morin. They come together pretty quickly and we have lots of pictures to help along the way.


You'll need the following items:

• White Felt
• Fabric
• Thread
• Ribbon
• Buttons
• Poly-fill
• Floss
• Sticks


1. Draw a pattern. Use it to cut out two felt pieces (front and back) for your snowman.

2. Add a hat. Pin on a scrap of fabric and cut around the snowman's hat. We were going for imperfection and just trimmed along the edge of the felt, but you could get more intense if you want and leave extra room to fold under when you're sewing.


3. Sew it. If you just set the back down and do all your work on the front part then it will be hidden nicely inside after you put it all together. Stitch around the hat and then tie it off on the back.

4. Add a scarf. Arrange a piece of ribbon around your snowman's neck, leaving some extra room so that it will still fit after you stuff your snowman. You could tie it, but it might look better if you just loop it around and then sew it together. Don't sew it to your felt though, we want to remove the scarf when we stitch the snowman together. By the way, isn't this American Crafts ribbon perfect? I love that it's gathered - plus it hides my stitch well because I just sewed right over the existing white thread!


5. Add a nose. A carrot nose, of course. I just stitched along the wide end so that the small end could poke out.

6. Add Buttons. A snowman is never fully dressed without buttons.



7. Add arms. We just rooted around for some twigs in the backyard, but you could use wooden skewers if you live in a land with no twigs. Like Death Valley. Or the Sahara. Use a hot glue gun to attach them to the back of the front piece.

8. Close up shop. Now that you're done with the front of the snowman, you can add the back. Before you sew the pieces together, pull out the glue gun again to attach a ribbon loop on the top to hang it with. Stitch all around, leaving an opening where you can add in the stuffing. You can use a pencil to push the stuffing around, filling up your snowman so he's nice and healthy looking. Snowmen are like Santa's - something's wrong if they're not a little on the chubby side. Once you're done with the stuffing, finish off your stitch.



9. Add mittens. If your twigs were kind of sad or you had to go for the skewer option, or if you just have lots of cute fabric scraps that you want to use, you can make your snowman even warmer with some cute mittens. A little edge of ric rac (also from American Crafts) along the top makes these mittens even more fun.


Don't forget to add your own handmade ornaments to our Flickr group!