Munchkin and Bean: Homemade Holiday Dolls

Sewing is quickly becoming a new hobby of mine! I am so excited with these felt dolls and can't wait to make more in the future! I plan on making another set of these dolls for my daughter but these ones will be given to my nephew as part of his Christmas gifts.

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You'll need brown felt for the gingerbread men and white felt for the snowmen. You can use scrap fabric from the snowman for the gingerbread icing and scrap fabric from the gingerbread for the snowman's arms. You'll also need black felt, orange felt, green felt and red felt (or any colours that you choose to use!).

I used the same gingerbread pattern that I used for my gingerbread people and cut out two pieces. I used a blanket stitch to sew around the edges. (And don't mind all the gaming sheets in the background - I'm a multitasker.)

I left the last inch and a half open to fill him up with stuffing. I should have put more stuffing in him, but I wanted him to be sort of flat, like a gingerbread cookie. So to me he feels too light, but my kids did not notice and still really liked him.

Once he was filled up with stuffing, I continued using the blanket stitch and closed him off.

Bean played dress-up with him while she considered what kind of clothes she might want to put on him.

She also went on a few cardboard box adventures with him! You can barely see him, but he's on her lap. And she's accompanied by Puppy and Cthulhu.

Finally we decided to add icing instead of clothes. Perhaps we'll make clothes for Bean's version, but since these are being given to our cousin who isn't yet a year old, simpler is better! He has white icing features on his face and "squiggle icing" on his arms and legs. Bean picked out red buttons and a green bow tie. Instead of sewing them on, I decided to glue them on using Elmer's fabric glue, which worked out perfectly!

Isn't he cute?

Now for the Snow Man! I used items I had on hand to trace circles onto a piece of white felt. You'll need a small, medium and large circular item to trace, or you can freehand it if you are brave. I recently started to use a disappearing ink pen for my felt crafts and I LOVE IT! This pen writes on fabric, so you can trace and cut, and then it disappears after a few hours, leaving the material clean of any marks. It has been a life changer.

I cut out the two snowman shapes and lined them up. I used the blanket stitch for the snowman as well. It's a perfect stitch for felt projects like this.

Please note: I completely meant to sew the arms into the body and was distracted by playing Netrunner (a card game) with my boyfriend that I finished sewing around the snowman before I realized I didn't sew in the arms. It would have come out much better if I hadn't forgotten this step, but he still came out really cute! I just sewed the arms to the outside.

Leave a small opening so you can fill him up with stuffing (or overstuff him, like I did, oops..) and then continue with the blanket stitch and close him off.

We used the black felt for the snowman's features and buttons/coals and orange felt for his carrot nose. Bean was very particular about his face and asked if he could be smiling.

I used Elmer's fabric glue for his features and buttons too. This glue worked considerably better than I expected!

For his arms, I cut out four matching "tree branch" shapes and lined two up and sewed a blanket stitch around the edges. I left the base open so that I could line it up over the edge of the white felt. I aligned the stitches and attached it, tied it off and tucked in the string. I also added a drop of glue inside the branch where it touched the white felt so that it could add a small amount of support, but it wasn't necessary.