How To Make Holiday Sock Gnomes | Gift Ideas

how to easily make a sock gnome

Are you looking for a fun easy DIY craft project you can make for gifts?  You need to make sock gnomes.  These are perfect gifts for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, St. Patrick’s Day and Sweetest Day, to name a few.

I found a lot of the supplies at my local dollar store, making these budget friendly projects for gifts.

You can make these with kids, but use caution with the glue gun, it’s hot!  We found it was best to put the blush on the nose, before putting the beard on.  It’s also best to do a dry run installing the beard before putting the glue on.

The faux fake fur is expensive, buy the least amount you need.  We got about a foot wide piece and made 10 gnomes.  You need to be careful how the material is laying when cutting it.  We cut several pieces wrong  (upside down).  If you can, cut the material outside and then shake it to remove any lose material (it can get messy).

We made multiple sock gnomes, but our supply list is for 1 sock gnome.

You can watch our video instructions on how to do this here too:

Supplies we used to make the gnomes #aff:
1 mid length white/gray solid color sock
1 patterned sock (for the hat)
1/4 cup rice (per gnome)
2 small rubber band
2 – 8″ pieces of string
blush to color nose
glue gun with extra glue sticks
2-3 cups of stuffing (like for pillows)
scissors
1 faux fake fur piece

How to build a gnome:

Take your plain sock and add the rice to the bottom.

Add your stuffing, reserving about a tablespoon worth for the gnome hat.

Move the stuffing around to your liking.

Note:  The more stuffing you add, the taller the gnome will be (and you might need a longer beard).

Reach into the sock and pull capture about a teaspoon amount and press into the sock, grabbing from the outside.  This will need to be about 3/4 of the way from the bottom of the sock.

Create the nose, by wrapping the rubber band around tightly, twice or until tight.

Take your blush and color the nose on all sides.

Tie string around in a knot and trim the excess string off.

Tie a knot into the top of the sock, so that it is close to the top of the stuffing.  If there is a lot of extra sock, cut off the excess.

5 easy homemade gifts for Christmas

Warning on making the beard, the faux fur can make a mess.  The rough dimensions are noted above and they do not need to be perfect.  If you are making a smaller gnome, adjust to make the length shorter.    Be sure to but a slit in the rectangle area, this is where you wrap the beard around the nose.

BEFORE you cut, make sure the material is the right direction.  Beards do you not up or sideways!

To glue down the  beard, you will want to do a dry fit to make sure the slit in the beard, will go around the nose completely.  You will want to  place your hot glue on the flat part of the  beard and put it around the nose.  Do the other side and overlap it a bit from the other side.

Take the other flat side (of the rectangle area) of the beard and glue that down as well.  See the beard photo above.  The purple areas are where you want to glue.

finishing the project

Take your colorful/patterned sock and the little piece of stuffing and place the stuffing into the toe area of the sock.  Make sure it’s rounded and take the other piece of string and tie it around in a knot, cutting off the excess (you can also put the rubber band on first if you want).

Place the color sock onto to sock gnome to make the hat. Be sure that it is pulled down towards the beard in front to hide where they eyes would be. Turn the top of the color sock up to make a rim of the hat.  You will want to glue in the front and back.