Gnomes are in, aren’t they? I personally think these homemade ones are cuter than what you can buy in the store – and they only cost a few dollars each to make! The body is a piece of wood (which I think is pretty cool) and there’s a wire in the hat to make it stand up and bendable.

If you don’t want to make your own you can customize one on Etsy and have it shipped to you!

SUPPLIES YOU NEED:

-2-4″ diameter tree branch piece (about 4-6″ tall)

-Wooden nose piece (half wooden balls)

-Fur material for beard

-Sweater for the hat (you could use a sock or whatever else you have laying around)

-Stuffing for the hat

-Baling wire

-Scrap piece of felt, denim or any fabric that the wire won’t poke through

TOOLS YOU NEED:

-Drill with bit

-Wire cutters

-Hot glue gun and glue

-Sewing machine or needle and thread for hand-stitching

Start by drilling a hole in the top-center of your wood piece about 1″ deep. This hole needs to fit the end of the baling wire.

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Turn your sweater inside out and measure how wide you need the opening of your hat by putting it around the top edge of your wood piece. Put a pin in place so you know where to start sewing. Lay the sweater flat and use pins to mark the rest of your hat shape.

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Sew along your pin line, removing pins as you go. Cut the hat away from the sweater leaving about 1/4″ of seam. Turn your hat right side out.

Cut the fur fabric to make a beard. Be very careful not to cut the actual fur! To do this take very small snips to cut only the fabric backing.

Cut your wire the same length as your hat.

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Glue your felt/denim scrap on the top of the wire.

Stick the wire through the top of your hat and stuff hat filling. My wire is too long here so I trimmed it about 1/2″ more.

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Glue around the back side of your beard and place it over your wood, about 1/4″ down from the top edge (this allows you to glue the hat on the wood later and not over the beard). Split the hair of your beard in half where the nose will go and glue the nose on.

Stick the wire in the top of your wood piece and glue around the hole to secure it in place. Glue your hat around the top of the wood working in a few inch sections at a time. Take your time on this part because it’s easy to make a mess of the glue and get it all over the beard and/or hat.

DONE!