Use this easy no sew sock gnome tutorial to create an adorable sock gnome for any holiday!
Being the festive mommy that I am (hey, that’s the name of the blog!), I absolutely love doing cute (and simple) holiday decor crafts that can work for any occasion. Also, I can’t sew yet, so I only have the option of no-sew crafts (like my DIY sweater pumpkins). I also have a ridiculous amount of cute holiday socks that I rarely wear. That’s where these little festive sock gnomes come in.
I had never really been into gnomes before, but I needed a little something extra to add to my Dollar Tree DIY tiered tray displays. Now I’ve become obsessed with seasonal sock gnomes because they all turned out SO. DARN. CUTE.
There are a ton of ways to create an easy no sew sock gnome, so some of my materials are interchangeable with other items. I’ll try to give you some ideas as I go through my tutorial of other things you can use. I did not buy ANYTHING in order to complete this DIY project–I only used stuff I already had at home!!
Let’s get started on our easy no sew sock gnome tutorial!
Supplies
For your easy no sew sock gnome, you’ll need:
- 1 festive sock
- 1 plain sock
- 1 rubber band
- Dried beans (I used black beans)
- Fiber fill (only a little)
- Macrame
- Hot glue gun
- Tiny pom-pom ball and tan floral wire OR a wooden bead
1. Prepare your plain sock
Your plain sock will be the “head” of your gnome. It will be covered completely by the gnome’s beard, so the color doesn’t matter too much for this. I used a white sock and a black sock for the easy no sew sock gnomes that I made. I think white socks are probably best if you’re using lighter macrame like I was.
Anyways, this plain sock does not need to be long, so if it is you will want to cut it so it’s shorter. This will make it easier to fill and work with. You can cut it a little higher than where the heel of the sock is.
2. Fill your plain sock
Next, we need to fill the plain sock with dried beans to weigh it down a bit. Then, we can add some fiber fill to fluff it up.
I used dried black beans for this step, but other options include: dried lima beans, small rocks or gravel, dried kidney beans, a few marbles, some pennies (maybe?), or pretty much anything small that will weigh your gnome down a bit.
I only used maybe a 1/2 cup of beans and about a handful of fiber fill for my gnome. Make sure you’re not filling it to the top of the sock–we’ll need a little excess material to work with for the next step.
The amount of fiber fill you use will determine how chunky your no sew sock gnome is. I made some of different sizes to experiment with how they turned out.
3. Tie your rubber band
After your gnome is filled, you’ll need to close up your sock by tying a rubber band around the top. This step is pretty easy and straightforward.
4. Cut & glue your macrame
Now it’s time to break out the macrame. I used some cream macrame that I had at home from another project, but I feel like these gnomes would be so cute with a gray or black beard as well, depending on your festive sock options.
If you don’t have macrame, you could also use the strands from a mop, which you can get super cheap at Dollar Tree. Cutting strands from an old knit sweater could also work if you’re really resisting a trip to the store for this project!
If you’re using macrame like me, you’ll need to cut a bunch of equal sized pieces of your macrame. We’ll be hot gluing the macrame strands to the gnome by folding them in half and gluing so that the two ends of the strands are making up the beard.
I cut mine a little longer than I really needed to, which led to some extra trimming in Step 6. Still, it’s better to have too much than not enough. I didn’t measure the exact size, but it was probably a little more than 12 inches.
After you cut your strands of macrame, start gluing them a little higher than the middle of the gnome’s head. Like I mentioned earlier, we’ll be folding the strands in half, then gluing the top folded part to the gnome’s head.
I glued my strands almost all the way around the head, only leaving a little space on the back. I probably could have left a little more space without the strands, but I was being thorough here.
If your gnome’s beard is still looking a little thin in the front, you might want to add another row of your macrame strands underneath the first row. I did this and it gave my gnome’s beard wayyyy more volume, which is exactly the look I was going for.
5. Pull apart your macrame
To make your sock gnome’s beard super fluffy and lush, you’ll need to pull apart the macrame rope strands. This part was a little tedious, but once I got into it it was super relaxing! Mindless tasks can be that way sometimes 😆
You can start at the end of the strand and untwist the macrame, or you can really just pull it apart from any part of the strand. There’s really no wrong way to do it! You’ll know you’re ready to move on when your gnome’s beard looks nice and full.
6. Trim your gnome’s beard
I liked this part. Now you get to live out your childhood pretend-play dreams of cutting a styling your gnome’s hair (or maybe that’s just me?).
Make sure to use some sharper scissors, or fabric scissors if you have them. Otherwise it gets a little trickier to cut.
I tried to make sure the sides of my sock gnome’s beard were a lot shorter. I kind of angled the whole beard so that the longest part would be in the middle and it gradually got shorter as it got closer to where the ears would be. Gotta get that realistic look, am I right?!
7. Create & add the nose
The easiest way to add a nose to your sock gnome would be to just use a wooden bead and hot glue it to your gnome’s face.
However, I did not have any wooden beads lying around my house and I was desperately trying to avoid buying supplies for this little project. So, it was time to improvise.
I had tan floral wire that originally used for my fall modern floral wreath, and it later came in clutch when I was doing my Dollar Tree pumpkin makeover. I used it to make some decorative balls for my tiered tray displays, as well. I decided to use it for my no sew sock gnome’s nose as well, and it worked perfectly.
I took a tiny pom-pom ball that I had and I just kept wrapping the floral wire around the pom-pom until it was fully covered. It turned out exactly as I hoped it would, and I love that it gives the sock gnome even more texture and dimension!!
After I created the nose, I hot glued it onto the gnome’s beard. I glued the nose pretty close to the top of the beard, but I left a little space so that the top of the beard wouldn’t show when I put my festive sock on the gnome’s head for its hat.
8. Put on your gnome’s “hat”
We’re almost done with our easy no sew sock gnome! It’s time to use your festive sock as your gnome’s hat.
There are a few options for this step. I made a few different no sew sock gnomes and tried out different things to see what turned out cutest.
If you have a longer sock for the hat, you may want to add some fiber fill to the inside of your festive sock before putting it on the gnome’s head. This is optional, but gives the gnome’s hat a little bit of a fuller look.
Here’s one of my Halloween sock gnomes that I used a longer sock for, and it filled it with just a bit of fiber fill:
I also tried adding a little pompom at the end of the hat for some of my no sew sock gnomes. I just put a bit of fiber fill at the very end of the sock, then wrapped some of my floral wire around the end of the sock to look like a pompom. If you don’t have floral wire, I think tying a rubber band around the end of the sock, then wrapping some twine around to hide the rubber band would give a similar look. Or just tie twine around and knot it in the back. So many options here!
You could also just do nothing to the sock–just pull it over your gnome’s head! It will still look awesome.
When I put my gnome’s hat on, I tried to pull it down further on the sides so it looked more like it was pulled up around the nose area. I felt like that looked a little more realistic, for lack of a better word.
Display your easy no sew sock gnome!
That’s it! Your easy no sew sock gnome is complete!
I considered going a step further and gluing down my festive “hat” sock so it would definitely stay put. HOWEVER, it was staying in place pretty well and I had this random brilliant idea to instead leave it purposely unglued. Why? Well obviously then I can just change out the sock for each holiday instead of making 50 sock gnomes!!
I thought the idea was pretty genius. I still ended up making like 5 other no sew sock gnomes, though, because it was too fun to resist 😆 .
How did your easy no sew sock gnome turn out?? Did you use any alternative materials?
Let me know in the comments below!
Stay festive, friends! 🙂
