Homemade Christmas gnome using discarded socks

You probably read it in one of my previous Nikolaus Tasche that I wanted to make a gnoom using discarded socks. A gnoom is part of the Scandinavian history and culture. He also has a place in their Christmas tradition as well. Time to make one. One can easily find enough patterns to make one out of fabrics but not out of socks. I made a kind of sketch and a proof model using pins. When I had something looking like a gnoom I made a paper pattern using the model as a guide line.
After the pattern was made, the body was cut and sewn together. My gnoom also has a base in the form of a circle.

Next step

The legs with feet are made of the legs parts of the socks. The feet are created from the heel. I used the feet part to make the arms and the toe piece for the hands. After sewing legs and arms they were stuffed. First the arms were attached at the body and then the legs and base were sewn on the body. When that was done the body was stuffed too.
The beard is made of some faux fur from a discarded slipper and is attached with a few hand stitches. I used a light pink beat to create a nose.
This noise was also hand stitched to body and the thread was firmly pulled on so only half of the nose is still visible.

Gnoom hat

The gnoom needed a hat. I wanted something different then the usual pointed hat and I started looking for different hat shapes for a gnoom. This pointed hat with earflaps that I found in one of Tilda’s books looked great and I decided to use that. I altered the shape a little bit and made the ear flaps longer. My gnoom hat is made of little piece of red fleece that once used to be an IKEA fleece blanket. This blanket has a border pattern and I used a small part of this border pattern in the ear flap. The hat is finished with a visible stitch.

Time and Costs

Time: preparation and pattern drafting 1,5 hour; cutting 30 minutes; stitching and finishing 4 hours
Costs: I only used discarded materials and leftover fabric to make this gnoom; fiberfill € 0,50

My experience making this gnoom

This gnoom isn’t perfect but I’m very pleased with the outcome. Using socks to make soft toys is really different from using fabric. I enjoyed the experience and it’s something I want to do again in the future. I’ll also be making another gnoom trying to make a perfect pattern for a Christmas gnoom made from discarded clothes and socks. Next project on my list is another father Christmas figure.