Winter - 3/3 - The Idea Room

Snow Man Tutorial

I made these cheery snowmen for Christmas gifts a few years ago and thought it would be fun to show you how to make some for yourself. I have also provided a free downloadable pattern here. You should be able to print it onto an 8.5 x 11 inch paper.

Simply take some white fleece or felt and cut out 2 of peices using the pattern provided.

Trace the face (eyes and X’s for the mouth) onto the front of your felt very lightly with a pencil. Then using all 6 strands of black embroidery floss, hand-stitch the eyes and X’s.

When you are finished, take your two peices of fabric and pin them so that the right sides are together. Start at the bottom and sew around the entire snowman except for a small opening along the bottom.

Turn the snowman inside out and fill him with stuffing. Do not fill him all the way full. Leave about 1.5 – 2 inches of room in the bottom.

Now take some beans, rice or split peas (not popular for eating at our house), and fill the bottom of your snowman. This will keep the snowman weighted down so he will stand upright.

Take a needle and thread and sew the bottom of the snowman together. I pulled all the ends into the center and sewed them together to seal up the hole. Tie off the ends of your thread. Your snowman should stand up on his own.

To make the hat, I took an old sweater that was in my pile for Goodwill and cut about 8 inches of the sleeve off.

I put the sweater on the snowman’s head and turned up the finished edge to make the brim of the hat. You might need to whipstitch around the base of the hat to keep it secured with needle and thread.

Then I took some material (the same material I will use later for the scarf or twine) and tied the top of the sweater off to make the top of the hat. You will have about 2-3 inches of sweater sticking up at the top. Then I simply took my scissors and cut the sleeve into strips down to the tied off portion. This allows the hat to have a fringed look on top.

Then I just cut a long strip (about 20 inches x 1 inch wide) of material to make the snowman a scarf. Simply tie your material around the bottom of your snowman to complete the scarf. Take a red crayon and add some color to your snowman’s cheeks.

For the nose, I have cut wood with my jigsaw and then painted it orange. You can also cut out a peice of cardboard and then glue some orange scrapbook paper to it to create the carrot nose. Glue the nose onto the snowman with E6000 glue. And that’s it!

You can make a family of snow people by changing the width and height of the pattern so they are different shapes and sizes. This project could also be done without a sewing machine for you non-sewers by simply handstitching everything.

Ice/Snow Scraper Hand Mitt Tutorial

I really do appreciate all your kind comments. They are what inspire me to keep this going! So THANK YOU! I do try to answer them all and your emails too! Thanks for all your great support. It means a lot! And now as promised…

I realize that not all of you are living with frigid temperatures, snow and ice right now, but we are. Believe it or not, I really do love snow and snow storms! I just don’t like when I have to scrape it or ice off the car in the frigid outdoor air temperatures. And since I am not very good about using gloves, I decided to make my ice scraper a little more frozen-finger friendly. So, I made a hand mitt for my scraper to keep my hand nice and toasty while de-icing my windshield.

Here is a tutorial and a free downloadable pattern!

You will need 2 coordinating fabrics, quilt batting, and an icescraper. (I used a small one, but this should work for the longer handled scrapers with the ice scraper and the brushes too).

I made mine so that there are two different material patterns on each side. I took two coordinating fabrics and cut 2 pattern peices out of each peice of fabric. Click here to download the pattern. You should have a total of four peices (2 of each type of fabric). Then cut out 2 peices of thin quilt batting using the same pattern.

*Take one peice of fabric and one peice of batting. Place the material with the right side down on your table and put the layer of batting on top.

Fold down the middle rounded edge about a 1/4 of an inch and pin. This will not go all the way across the rounded edge (see picture). Sew right along the folded edge and then set aside.

Take the other peice of material (with the same pattern) and fold the edge of the rounded end of the material (so that the wrong sides of the fabric are touching) and sew it as you did the previous peice of material.

Take your two peices of sewn material and pin them together so that the right sides of the material are together and your batting layer is on top. Sew around the entire edge with a 5/8″ seam. However, be sure to leave an opening large enough for you to be able to turn the material inside out.

Turn inside out through the hole you have left in the bottom of the U*. After the material is turned inside out, tuck in the open unsewn edges, pin and then sew the opening shut. You can either do this by hand or just with your sewing machine.

Now repeat the above instructions (from * to *) for your other two peices of coordinating fabric and batting.

When both are finished, pin them together. Now sew around your pinned peices using a 5/8″ seam in a U shape. DO NOT SEW ALONG THE FLAT EDGES. THIS IS THE OPENING FOR YOU HAND. Remember to leave an opening large enough to fit the handle of your icescraper between the two peices along the rounded bottom of the U shape.

Turn inside out and you should be all finished! Insert your icescraper handle.

Not only will this keep your fingers toasty warm while de-icing your windows, you will look fashionable doing it :D!