Gnoma Claus is Coming To Town ♪♫

Winterkist is the new Christmas range by Happy Zombie (Monica Solorio-Snow) for Lecien. 

Some of you may recognise the Gnoma Claus character from her previous fabric range, Holiday Happy. This range is a lot brighter and we love the new co-ordinates and colours Monica has chosen. We have Winterkist in the Green, Blue, Red & Gray colourways as show above.

Another improvement is the layout of the Gnoma Claus panel. For Holiday Happy the Gnoma Claus were laid out in a way that only allowed for the Gnomas to be made up into plushies. For Winterkist, Monica has changed the format so that panel contains 18 Gnoma plushie fronts in 5 sizes ranging from 18cm/7in up to 38cm/15in tall. The Winterkist panel layout is much more adaptable as it can be used as meterage for making bags, Christmas sacks, Christmas stockings, etc. Each Gnoma front can also be fussy cut and used to make projects like the cute coasters below.

Coaster

Instructions on making pot holder/hot pad can be found here. The original instructions are for Holiday Happy but the process is still the same. We used 4 small Gnomas from the Winterkist Gnoma Claus Blue Panel and backed them with a plain aqua blue fabric to make these cute little coasters. Perfect for an Aussie summer Christmas pool party!


Plushies

Our Gnoma Plushies are also made from the Winterkist Gnoma Claus Blue Panel and backed with Winterkist Squareflakes Blue.

Making these guys is super easy:

1. Cut out one or more individual Gnoma Claus from the fabric panel, leaving at least 5mm / 1/4 inch extra fabric around the outline of the Gnoma for seam allowance.
2. Place the Gnoma and the backing fabric right sides together and pin in place.
3. To make the hanger tab, place a piece of folded ribbon at the tip of the hat between the two layers. The loop should sit inside the body and the ends should stick out from the seam allowance.
4. Sew around the Gnoma's outline, make sure to leave an opening for turning out (we left approx. 8cm gap on the bottom of each Gnoma).
5. Trim the seam allowance back and clip the curves, turn right side out.
6. Stuff your Gnoma with Toy fill (polyfill, toy stuffing).
7. Slip stitch the opening closed.
8. Hang up your Gnoma Claus Christmas decorations for everyone to admire.

If you are after even more Gnoma Claus projects you could also try this tote bag (perhaps as a possible Christmas Stocking replacement). Once again it has been written for the Holiday Happy panel but it should translate ok.

Happy crafting!
Ky and Cloud