Meet Fergus, The Cutest Handmade Gnome for the Holidays

Hi friends! I’m Lorena Wakefield, and I’m delighted to be back on the Spellbinders blog with a cozy felt project featuring Fergus the Gnome by Sandi MacIver. He’s sweet, sturdy, and surprisingly simple, perfect as a tree ornament, a bottle topper, or a little shelf sitter. Below you’ll find a clear, photo-matched walkthrough.

Step 1

Some of the dies are numbered; this shows how many pieces you’ll need to cut from each shape.

Step 2

Arrange the felt and dies on your cutting plate, and run them through your Platinum 6

Step 3

Die cut all the gnome parts from your chosen felt colors (body, hat, beard, hands, feet, etc.).

Step 4

The embroidery thread usually has 6 filaments, but I will use just 2 or 3 at a time

Step 5

Separate the filaments by pulling one at a time

Step 6

Take one of the body pieces and begin blanket stitching it with the base along one side.

Step 7

Stitch the other body piece, keeping the edges aligned.

Step 8

Once you form the cone, fill it with some filler (I used an old cushion filler)

Step 9

Close it and finish stitching to form the gnome’s body.

Step 10

Start a running stitch around the edge of a small felt circle.

Step 11

Pull the thread to gather the circle into a ball. Repeat another 2 times (these will be hands and nose).

Step 12

Stitch the hand to the arm,

Step 13

Stitch the sides of the arm together, it creates a tube that you can fill, decorate with a strip of felt of a different shade, repeat to build both arms

Step 14

The jacket has three pieces. Align the holes and stitch one side with the back

Step 15

Insert the arm at the top and stitch together. If you don’t want a gnome with open arms, stitch the arms to the shoulder instead.

Step 16

Repeat on the other side

Step 17

Start to stitch the triangle to the doughnut shape piece to build the hat (the brim is double to add stability)

Step 18

Fold the large triangle into a cone shape for the hat.

Step 19

Blanket stitch along the seam to close the hat.

Step 20

Add decorative stitching around the brim if you like.

Step 21

To help me get less messy stitching, I draw a dotted line with a black pen

Step 22

You can decorate the jacket in the same way.

Step 23

At the top, you can unite the other side and continue the decoration.

Step 24

Stitch the nose to the layered beard

Step 25

Then stitch them to the body.

Step 26

It should look like this

Step 27

Die cut holly leaves from the “Winter & Christmas Embellishments” in green felt.

Step 28

From the same dies, Die cut 4 times, the poinsettia, from red felt, and layer two of them with the button that I die cut in gold mirror cardstock

Step 29

I stitched it with gold thread

Step 30

If you have the correct glue (specific for fabric), attaché the flowers to both sides of Fergus' jacket; otherwise, you can stitch them

Step 31

Glue the florals and leaves to decorate the gnome’s hat.

Step 32

Place the hat onto the body, adjust details, and your Fergus the Gnome is finished!

Tips & Variations

Posable hat: slip a thin floral wire inside the hat seam before closing to bend the tip. Free-standing base: tuck a small washer or coin inside the spool base. Holiday palette: swap felt colors (forest green, cranberry, cream) or try sparkly felt for a festive hat band. Ornament: skip the spool and keep Fergus light; add a longer hanging loop. Even though I’m a beginner at stitching, Fergus turned out so sweet, and I had so much fun along the way. If you’re curious about trying stitching dies but feel intimidated, I can honestly say this is a great place to start. Fergus is proof that you don’t need to be an expert to create something beautiful and full of character.

Other supplies

Tread and felt, and glue are from my stash