Don’t you love Sock Gnomes. These DYI sock gnomes will keep you busy for an pandemic indoor activity!
Each year, it seems, that we are seeing more of these gnomes, and styles throughout the year. It doesn’t take much imagination to see their personalities shine through with the way they groom their beards or wear their colorful hats.
They can be created for all occassions, and on a relatively affordable budget, depending what you can source from your home first, before heading out to a dollar store.
Gather your supplies
- Solid socks (choose some solid colors for the body, as you won’t see much stripes when covered by the beard)
- Colorful Socks for the hat.
- Faux fur for the beard
- Elastic bands/or you can use your hands to tie a knot to hold the filling in place in the sock
- cotton balls or stuffing for the nose and the hat
- nylon stockings to cover the nose
- hot glue gun to glue the hat, beard, and nose
- glue sticks
- scissors
- a filler: rice, wheat, or beans to fill the socks
Step 1: DYI Gnome Body
Take a solid colour sock, and put some rice in it. To make less mess, use a funnel. It takes around 1 cup of filler. Too big, it won’t sit nicely.
Once, you filled the desired the amount, either use an elastic band to tie off the sock, or just knot it. Then cut the rim of the sock off. For some, I folded down the extra material over the knot, and glued, so no rice would escape.
Step 2: DYI Gnome Beard
I found two rolls of faux fur, one brown, and one white, from a dollarama store in Canada, for $4 a roll in the ribbon aisle. The roll was only about 2.5 inches wide, perfect for these socks. You can also try the fabric or craft stores if you were wanting wider sizes. I cut a strip about 3 inches long, and trimed it on an angle to give it a bit of style.
The straight edge faux fur, was placed at the top right up to the elastic or end of the knot. Therefore, the angled edges are facing down to the body. However, if you place the grain of the fur opposite, it will look funky, and show a bit of personality of a gnome, that had a bad hair day, or has that natural cow lick that wouldn’t stay down.
Step 3 : DYI Gnome Nose
I used 2 cotton balls for one nose, gathered the nylon around, and hot glued it. Then centre the nose in the middle of the beard, and hot glue it down. You can use other items, like felt balls, wooden beads, but I’m always a bit conscious of younger children. Therefore, I don’t want to add something that could cause a choking hazard, if it got loose and in the wrong hands.
Step 4: DYI gnome hat
I used the entire kids sock, by knotting the heel for the hat. I stuffed cotton balls, even unrolled the cotton ball, and also tried using stuffing inside the sock. Then I added hot glue, around the head, making sure that the nose and top of the beard were covered.
For others, I took the sock hat, knotted it, and then cut of the toe part. Fluff the beard a bit, and Ta da!! You are done!! Now what, would you name this cute one?
Miss Chrissy