Ho-ho-ho! Once again, it’s the time of year to make Christmas tree ornaments! Last year I made a gnome ornament tutorial that was very well received, you can see that here. This Rudolph ornament is based on the same  idea of transforming one simple shape into an ornament.

You will need these materials:
brown wool (body,ears,snout)
beige wool (belly)
white wool (eyes)
core wool or poly-fiber fill (base shape)
black, red, beige sewing thread (to wrap core wool, sew on beads & wrap wool antlers)
2 black seed beads (eyes)
sewing needle (to sew on eye and nose beads)
1 red bead (nose)
sponge (felting surface)
tiny branches (antlers)
fabric glue (to glue in antlers)
scissors

Base shape/oval: 3.5″ or 9cm long x 4″ or 10cm diameter
cone shape/snout: 1″ or 2.5cm long
leaf shape/ears: 1″ or 2.5cm long

NOTE: I’ve included my hand in many of the photos so the proportion of the pieces is easier to understand.

NOTE: Needle felting this piece will be faster and in my opinion easier if you use a coarse wool like Shetland, Corringdale or a wool labeled as “fast felting”.

 1. With sewing thread, wrap a handful of polyfiber-fill (pillow stuffing) or core wool into the base shape. Wrapped tightly, the sewing thread keeps the polyfiber-fill or core wool in your desired shape.

 

2. Wrap the base shape with brown wool and needle felt till firm and smooth.

 

3. Take a tuft of brown wool and roll it into a cone shape. Needle felt the cone shape till firm, then felt it onto the base shape .

 

4. Use a tiny tuft of white wool, roll it into a ball then needle felt it above the snout, where the eyes will  be. Felt a beige oval onto Rudolph’s belly.

 

5. Take two small tufts of brown wool to make Rudolph’s ears. Lay the wool on the sponge and fold over both edges toward the center (this gives the edges a clean finish). Felt the ear into a pointy leaf shape. Don’t felt too long on one side of the ear or it will stick to the sponge, turn the ear over every few needle stabs so both sides are felted and the ear doesn’t become stuck to the felting sponge. Leave one pointy end of the ear unfelted, use the unfelted end to felt the ear to the reindeer head.

 

6. Sew a black seed-bead into the middle of each white eye area. Sew a red bead on the end of the snout for Rudolph’s nose.

 

7. Antlers: Find 2 small twigs (that look like deer antlers!) to glue into Rudolph’s head OR you can wrap a pipe cleaner with beige wool instead. After you wrap the beige wool around the pipe cleaner, wrap beige sewing thread around the wool to help secure it to the pipe cleaner. Each way is cute, but looks very different. Cut two small slits on top of the head. Fill each slit with fabric glue and insert the twig or pipe cleaner.