Christmas Crafts: Diy Elf on a Shelf with Outfit Tutorial

This post may contain affiliate links, please check out my disclosures page for more info.  Thanks!

For my first project for Christmas, here’s…

…The Elf on the Shelf.

I started to think it would be fun to have one of these little elves around the house.  Then I started to think it would be more fun to make one instead of buying one.

And I’m not the first to think that.  I found this tutorial for a DIY elf, and decided to make a similar one.  Just without the clay and the vintage doll face which was too tricky to find, but super adorable.

Anyway remember that odd doll I bought at Joann (see A Late Black Friday Craft Haul).  I got it specifically to used for this project because it’s the same one used in that tutorial.  It poses nicely, so it’s perfect for elfishly good fun.

And just like in that tutorial, I prepared the doll by cutting off the feet and stitching the bottom of the legs shut.

However, from there I just did my own thing.  Basically all I did for my elf is make it a cute little elf outfit and decorate the face.  It was so much fun, I wanted to share it with you.

Elf on the Shelf Tutorial

Materials:

• 14 inch muslin doll or similar doll base
• 9x12 inch pieces of felt, 4 red and 1 white
• Basic sewing supplies 
• Fabric markers for face
• Optional: Glue or snaps or Velcro

Here’s the pattern for the clothes. 

If you chose not to cut the doll’s feet, you will either need to make the pants about 1.5 inches longer or cut off the tips of the pants before sewing.  Then you will have normal pants and just need to make your elf some shoes.

The clothing pieces are made in simple shapes, so this would be perfect for a beginning sewing project for a child, with adult supervision of course.

First cut two shirt pieces and pin.  Sew along the sleeves and down the sides. 

You can sew by hand using a running stitch, but I recommend using a backstitch (if you don’t know how to do a backstitch, check out my video tutorial for doll drawstring tank tops).

When done sewing, carefully clip the seam allowance at the armpits so it will look better when turned right side out. 

Try not to accidently cut the thread or you will have to re-sew it (I did it three times while sewing this outfit!).

Turn the shirt right side out and try it on the doll for fit.  You will need to cut down the back to make an opening.

Looks great right?

Now pin on the collar and sew in place.  If you’re feeling lazy, you could glue it on instead.

Now cut two pieces for the pants and pin and sew.  Just like with the shirt, you clip at the crotch and around the feet.

After turning right side our try it on the doll.  It will be a snug fit, so getting them on may be a bit tricky.

If you are making this with a kid, you will probably need to help them.

Cut one piece for the hat and hat trim and sew (or glue) the trim along the curved edge of the hat.

Then fold the hat in half and sew along the straight edge to form a cone.  Clip the point at the top before turning right side out.

And here is your little elf hat.

Cut two pieces for each glove (4 pieces total).  Sew around and clip before turning right side out.  Easiest gloves in the world.

Time to dress your little elf.

You can simply sew or glue the back of the shirt closed.  However, if you want to make the clothes removable just sew on snaps or Velcro.

Before attaching the hat (if you want to), it’s time to add a face to this little guy.  Just draw a little face in pencil, then draw over with fabric markers.

Here’s how mine turned out.  I used the beaded eyes as the pupils and drew the rest of the eye parts along with nose, mouth, chin and eyebrows.

I added a touch of pink for the cheeks and in the corners of the nose and mouth.  A little bit of blue and purple to the eyes, and he has a face.

Truth be told, I kind of think it looks cuter with the blank doll face, but an elf needs a smile. 

For hair, I made several strokes using both yellow and brown to make it pop more.  He has highlights! 

The nice thing about the hair is if you mess up you can hide it under the hat.

And there you have your completed elf doll.  All he (or she) needs is the book.

I found this copy at the bookstore at my local library, or rather it found me.  I just walked in the door and there it was, for only $3 too.  It was fate.

For those who aren’t as lucky though, you can find the book on amazon among other places.

Book or not, you can still have tons of fun with these elves.  Try not to get too carried away. :)

Here’s the updated list:

• Snowmen
• Elf
• pouches
• Coats

One down, three more to go, and 10 days until Christmas.  Oh, dear.

Give it a try:

• Long Leg Muslin Doll w/Wire 14"
• 9" x 12" Basic Felt by Creatology™
• Tulip Fabric Markers 12/Pkg Fine Tip
• Singer Sewing Kit Beginner's

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A-Maze-ing Valentine’s Day

This post may contain affiliate links, please check out my disclosures page for more info.  Thanks!

Finally I have my first project ready to share.

Anyway, I started thinking about Valentine’s day a little too late this year.  So I wanted to possibly give some cute little cards to a few people, but again this is a little late so making something super elaborate wouldn’t work.  But I also didn’t want to just buy a box cards in a store.

Then I thought of mazes.

Many of you already know that I draw mazes and post them on my maze blog.  Last Christmas I made a cute maze to liven up gift cards, so why not make a little something for Valentine’s Day too?  Which means…

Maze Valentines!

I made a cute set of mazes to give out to special people.  And just like with the gift card maze, I made them available to all. 

You can find the download link here on my maze blog.  Feel free to print them and give them away or use them to decorate you gifts.  Get creative, and please share your creations with me.

Here’s the updated list:

• coats
• hearts
• organize
• blouse
• outfit

One down, four more to go.  Look forward to the next project.

Give it a try:

• Recollections® Cardstock Paper Value Pack

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Crafting for Christmas: Ornaments, Dresses, and a Printable?

This post may contain affiliate links, please check out my disclosures page for more info.  Thanks!

I may have gone a little quiet the last couple of weeks.  It’s because I’ve been frantically sewing for Christmas, and I have made excellent progress.

Here’s a few things I made.

Ornaments!

These are Danish woven heart baskets.  I found the tutorial for them here.  When I first saw them, I thought they would be perfect to make as ornaments to give as gifts.  Just fill them with chocolate and they are perfect.

To make them, I used sheets of craft felt and ribbon for the loops.  You can also use construction paper, for a fun kids project.

It wasn't in the tutorial, but I added blanket stitching along the top edge for strength and cuteness. Just one more personal touch.

The problem is with my color choices.  I love the look of pink, but on these the pink looks more Valentine’s day then Christmas.  I guess that works too.

The next project at least screams Christmas.  It’s my new…

Poinsettia Dress!

I found the fabric at SAS on sale, $1.99/yard.  I bought several yards.  I thought it would be perfect for a dress, and a few other things that will come later.

The dress uses a Simplicity pattern for the bodice and I just made a full rectangle skirt for the bottom.

I trimmed the neckline with red ribbon, bows and some black lace I bought last year.  The lace was intended for a skirt I tried to make, but it didn’t match the fabric.  Finally got to use it.

I added lace and ribbon to the skirt too, right above the ruffle.  The ruffle was easier for me to make than usual.  My new sewing machine handles things like that a lot better than my old one (see A Sewing Machine Review Because...).

This is a pair of angel pins that were gifts from two different people.  I wore them both with the dress to church last Sunday.  It was the day of the choir’s annual Christmas Cantata or concert. 

I did surprisingly well considering I woke up coughing and sneezing like crazy that morning.  Some medicine, herbal tea, and a few cough drops later and I could sing just fine.

The next project is a bit different.  Normally I am all about making all my gifts, but I do have some people who are super difficult to craft for.  I decided that they would be happier with a gift card, but you can’t just hand someone a gift card and call it a day.  You have to wrap it nicely too right?  There are tons of cute printable gift cards all over the internet, but I wanted to add a special touch to them.  I thought about mazes.

Many of you know that I draw mazes, I even have a maze blog.  So I thought, why not print out a gift card holder and draw a maze on it?  Then I thought, why not make the maze the holder?

Now presenting…

The Maze Gift Card Holder

Now everyone who receives a gift card from me gets a fun maze to try out.  And I posted it to my maze blog, so anyone can download them and give mazes too.

I have more even projects to share in the next few days and some more surprises too.  I can’t wait to show them to you.  Look forward to it!

Give it a Try:

• 9" x 12" Basic Felt by Creatology™
  
• 3/8" x 15yd. Satin Double Face Ribbon by Celebrate It® Classic
  
• DMC® 117 6 Strand Cotton Embroidery Floss, Red
  
• SINGER Christmas Holiday Poinsettia Print Cotton Fabric
  

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And We’re Back…With Some Fun Stuff

The blogging hiatus (with some exceptions) has officially ended.  I have returned and brought a few gifts with me.

First up, I mentioned before that I wanted to take time to work on a few personal projects among other things (see Special Announcement or What to Expect).  One of those projects was these…

…Paper Dolls!

I got the idea while looking through some of my old dress designs.  Two things I noticed.  First is that I actually enjoy drawing clothes just as much as making them.  Second is that over time I’ve slowly improved at drawing clothing.  I’d show examples of that except my earlier designs are just too embarrassing to be seen.

Anyway, I got the idea to try drawing dolls since then I could draw clothes for them to wear.  I made three sets to start.  Feel free to print them out and enjoy.  I opted not to color them or finish their faces, I figured it would make them more fun to play with that way.

The first set is baby girl, I guess she’s more of a toddler though.  For clothes she has a sundress with hat and sandals, a nicer dress with shoes and hair bow, and a play outfit with hat and shoes.  The play outfit is inspired by the anime Cardcaptor Sakura.  One of Sakura’s more casual/normal outfits to be exact. 

The second is a cat just for the heck of it.  For clothes she has a sweet dress with a flower hair corsage, an unusual set with puffy shorts and a hat, and a knit sweater with matching hat and skirt.  For some reason I felt the need to make at least one sweater-y looking outfit for each doll, even the one with fur.

And then there’s this short haired girl.  For clothes she has a pleated skirt and turtle neck outfit, a sort of wrap dress, and a v-neck top with jeans and sandals.  The turtle neck outfit was actually inspired by Thelma from Scooby Doo. 

If you would like larger images of these dolls, you can download them here.

Now for something else fun.  If you follow my maze blog, you would know that it has been a looooong time since I posted a new maze (like a year).  This is mainly due to the lack of a working scanner.  Well seeing as I was able to upload these hand drawn paper dolls it comes as no surprise that I now have a fully operational scanner at my disposal.  

So when you finish having your fun with these dolls, you can hop on over to my maze blog and a enjoy solving some fresh mazes.

There’s still more fun to come.  There are so many things that happened while I was gone that I want to share so the next few posts will catching up posts.  Look forward to them.

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More Lace and Excuses

It’s kind of funny.  I said before that I would post the next project “this Thursday”, and by that I certainly did not mean two weeks from Thursday.  But that’s precisely what has happen.  The excuse?  More like excuses.  First, I had several projects for school to work on including a few “surprise” ones.  Throw in the end of Tax Season which meant being slightly busier at work for a period.  And the biggest and saddest excuse of them all.  A game.  I found a free RPG and since it had been some time since I played one I thought I would try it out a little.  It’s called Ahriman’s Prophecy and it’s surprisingly addictive.  See for yourself if you don’t believe me, you can download it here.      

Anyway, using that floral print fabric, I have made a skirt, a dress, and a bag.  So now here’s the final piece from it, a sleeve-less top.  It’s great because I can wear it together with the skirt sort of like a dress, or with other pieces to avoid blinding people with too much matchy-matchy-ness.  It has shirring in the back so I can pull it on easily and breath easily.  Still are some little quirks to it.  I made the straps slightly too long which isn’t too bad since I “fixed” them.  It just baffles me, I was so sure I measured them properly.  Also, I like the ruffle at the bottom but I can’t help but think that it might not be the most flattering place to stick a ruffle.  Otherwise I am satisfied with the way this came out.

Continuing on, remember Jenny, my Our Generation doll?  She’s the model for this pretty and dressy new dress I made using another commercial doll clothes pattern.  The fabric was an old remnant I got from my mom.  It’s from a stack that she dumped on me, perfect for making doll clothes.  Anyway, I do love how pretty it is, even if it was a pain to sew.  The fabric is so slippery, my poor sewing machine.  Anyway, the pattern was a cinch to use, the only problem with it is that I think the skirt would look better if it was a little shorter.  Same with the sleeves.  Other than that, I love the dress.  I kind of reminds me of a flower girl dress for a wedding.  Maybe I should make some accessories to go with it.  That would be cute right?

This last one is a bag idea I sort of tried before, but in white.  Basically covering the pieces for the bag with rolls of lace before sewing them.  This one I used black lace that is considerably wider than the white lace I used before, so it was noticeably faster to make.  A few other differences with this one is that instead of a zipper to close I used a clasp I ripped from another bag I didn’t like anymore.  Also, with the white bag I made the strap by twisting strands of lace into a cord.  With this one I just folded the lace in half and sewed.  The lace is the perfect width for that, plus it helps to show off the design of the lace.  Over all I’d say it came out well, although I guess it is kind of strange to be making a black bag when it is getting closer and closer to summer.

Here’s the updated list:

• Floral bag
• Wreath
• Doll
• Top
• Doll dress
• Gloves
• Black purse
• Tiny plushies
• Tiny “men” clothes

Six down, just three more to go.  I should have the rest done by Monday at the latest, I mean it this time.  Also,  I should warn you that the next project list will probably up a little later then expected (expected date is the first of May).  I have a quiz, two major tests, and finals coming up in the next two weeks.  Enough said.

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2011

A new year means new beginnings.  It also means you need a new calendar.  So I complied a list of free printable calendars that I love so much.  I can’t decide between though.  Anyway, enjoy them.

• Hello Kitty – Cute Sanrio calendars for free, but they only have one month at a time.  You’d have to go back at the end of each month.
• Kawaii Mini Calendar – Name says it all.
• Owl Lover Calendar – Custom made printable calendar with tons of cute owl illustrations.  They also have a premade one to download if you’re in a hurry.
• Bookmarks with Calendar – Every book lover needs a bookmark with a calendar printed on it.
• Reindeer Boy? – Seems a little odd, but they sure are cute.
• Pocket Calendar – A super cute cat calendar that goes everywhere.

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