The Tooth Gnome

Years ago I made this tooth gnome, adapting it from some hand drawn notes I was given at a craft group. At the time I had two daughters who were pretty heavily invested in the tooth fairy, so it sat in our soft toy basket, used for many purposes but never teeth.

Then little Robin has come along, and suddenly teeth are falling out regularly. This little gnome matches Robin’s personality so perfectly, and delivers beautiful crystals for him to put on his shelf of special things.

You will need:

~ some felt, approximately A5 size (I always use 100% wool felt). An earthy colour is appropriate for a gnome, since they live close to the earth.

~ some stuffing fleece

~ a little bell or star for the hat

~ some cotton stretch material (tricot, or an old t shirt or singlet will also do)

~ some felt in brown for the knapsack

~ embroidery thread to sew up the gnome, and also for eyes

~ some fleece tops for the beard.

Instructions for sewing:

Take a square of cotton knit/tricot/t-shirt material, and a small handful of stuffing fleece. Be sure to have a long doubled over sewing thread ready to tie. Squeeze the stuffing fleece into a ball and push into the middle of the square of material, then pull the material down and all around it so it ends up as a ball with the ends of the material hanging down. Use the sewing thread to tie it around the bottom (neck), and leave the excess material hanging down. A good size for the head is approximately 3.5-4cm high.

Cut two star bodies out of the felt, and use blanket stitch to sew them together, starting from one side of the neck and going around to the other side – but don’t sew right up to the edge of the neck yet, leave it a bit open with needle and thread still attached and ready to sew.

The star body is approximately 8.5cm across from arm to arm.

Stuff the star body with stuffing fleece, using a chopstick or something similar to poke the fleece into the corners of the star. The body should be fairly firmly stuffed, but leave a bit of a hole down the centre of the star for the head. Use the chopstick to poke the excess material of the head below the neckline and into the body. Push the head down far enough that the string tying the neck will be below the felt and unseen.

Use the attached needle and thread to finish sewing up to the neck, then go around the neck using running stitch so that the star body is now sewn to the bottom of the head, holding it in.

The knapsack: I made an open knapsack, which needs two rectangles of felt, approx 2.5cm wide and 3.5cm high. Sew them together around the bottom three sides using blanket stitch.

Cut some long strips of felt in the same colour as the knapsack. Place these in the centre of the backside of the star body and stitch a few times to hold them. Then they go over the shoulder, across the front of the body and around under the opposite arm, to meet the same place where they began. Sew them to the rear side of the knapsack then do a few stitches into the body again so the straps and knapsack are held firmly in place.

Take some blue or brown embroidery thread and sew a knot at the rear of the head. Pass the needle through the head to the front and stitch some eyes, tying off again at the back of the head. If you are not confident – use two glass headed pins to place the eyes before stitching to ensure they are not too close or too far apart.

Take some curly fleece tops or fleece for the beard – take a moment to place it and get the right amount. Again, tie a knot at the back of the head and using small running stitches in a colour similar to the fleece, attach the beard to the face of the gnome. It is easy to fluff out the fleece a little so the stitches become invisible.

A gnome hat is essentially a large, long triangle, but it’s exact size depends on the size of the head of the gnome. Take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then draw a line from the fold out to make a long triangle, using the head of the gnome as a guide for how wide the hat should be at the bottom. Cut the triangle out and open out the fold, then test to see if it fits snugly around the head. The hat in the picture above is approximately 10cm long. Use blanket stitch to stitch the hat together and add a little bell or star or charm at the end if desired. Then use running stitch to secure the hat to the head of the star gnome, ensuring the hat covers the entire back of the head (because we have not done hair).

Your tooth gnome is complete! If you make one – do post some pics in the comments.