Although your average woodland gnome has a life expectancy of hundreds of years, that’s not always the case for friends that dwell in our gnome house. Although many of them live to a ripe old age, sadly, some have been carried off by beasties, sometimes known as puppies, others have mysteriously disappeared, only to be found later by mommies when going through the pockets of wee ones that have come to visit, and, occasionally, they go off on their own journeys, perhaps to other rooms in the house, and sometimes they are even discovered in the mailbox in our fairy forest! When these wandering gnomes do return, they are always ready to share tales of their adventures! But the sad truth is… occasionally we do lose a gnome of two or three. ((heavy sign))
From time to time we invite more gnomes to join us in The Thicket. Here are a couple of new gnome friends that now reside with us. It looks like they are dressed in their finest… perhaps for a spring wedding!
To make your own Wedding Guest Gnomes, follow the general directions for making gnomes which can be found HERE.
Gather your supplies. For the capes and hats I used hand dyed felt I dyed myself. I love the variations in colors you get. I will soon be posting how I dye my felt.
Follow the general DIRECTIONS for making gnomes until you come to the capes.
Important Note: People turnings (wooden pegs) are not all created equal. Even pegs bought from the same company can be slightly different. I highly suggest you make a copy of the pattern, cut it out of paper, and “try it on” your wooden pegs. Make adjusts to the paper pattern before cutting out your felt.
Needle felt a design on the cloaks. For the flowers I used white roving and began at the center of the flower, twisting the fibers as I went to create a spiral.
Next, I added some simple leaves using green roving.
Finally, I used a very little yellow roving for the flower center.
After you have needle felted the cloaks, continue with the general DIRECTIONS.
When I was sewing the cloak to the gnome, I added little dangles I had in my bead collection. Also, you will notice that these gnomes have little dreamy eyes. Fairy will play with faceless gnomes, but she does prefer the have eyes, so I oblige 🙂 Use a very fine tipped, waterproof marker to make the eyes. (I used my Pigma Micron 01.)
These gnomes are now ready for spring and for the gnome wedding they have been invited to! They will be given fair warning to stay away from the friendly, but sometimes too rambunctious canines!
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What adorable patterns! Thank you!
You are very welcome. Hope you have fun making them.
These are such wonderful little gnomes. I especially love their clasps on the cloaks! Your hand dyed felt is beautiful!!
Thanks. I'll soon be sharing my dying technique… very easy. Make sure to check back next week.