Add some festive fun to your wardrobe this winter with this applique reindeer design, complete with mini jingle bells on the antlers and a fluffy pompom nose and tail. Perfect for Christmas parties and festive selfies!
Don't fancy making a novelty jumper? You could also use this tutorial to decorate the front and back of a cushion (or maybe even a pair of cushions) and add some festive cuteness to your decor.
This tutorial originally appeared in docrafts Creativity magazine.
To make this project, you will need:
- A jumper!
- The templates provided at the bottom of this post
- Felt in the following colours: light brown, dark brown, white, black, and red.
- Matching sewing threads
- Small jingle bells
- A red pompom for the nose, and a large white pompom for the tail
- Sewing scissors
- A sewing needle and pins
- A ruler
Important: Hand wash the finished jumper carefully in lukewarm water. Definitely do not tumble dry!
To decorate the jumper:
1. Use the templates provided to cut the pieces from felt in the colours marked.
2. Position the light brown front body and head and the dark brown antler pieces on the front of the jumper and pin them into place. Use plenty of pins and take care to only pin through the front of the jumper.
Tip: Use a ruler to help you position the reindeer in the centre of the jumper
3. Sew the felt to the jumper, sewing round the edges with whip stitch and matching threads and removing the pins as you sew. Throughout this project take care to only sew through one layer of the jumper and don't sew the front and back together by accident. Check your stitching at regular intervals so you don't have to unstitch a large section if you make a mistake!
4. One by one, position the white ear details, the black eyes and the white belly in position as shown. Pin them in place then stitch around the edges with whip stitch and matching thread. Remove the pins as you sew each piece in place.
5. Construct the red bow by sewing the pieces in the following order: ribbon, right tail, left tail, left and right bow, and centre circle. One by one, pin each shape in place, sew it with whip stitch and red sewing thread, remove the pin(s) then sew the next shape.
6. Turn the jumper over and arrange the back pieces as pictured: the light brown head and neck piece, the light brown body and the two dark brown antlers. The back of the jumper shows the back of the reindeer, so the antlers should be flipped to be a mirror image of the front. Note that unlike the front antlers, the bottom of the back antlers are hidden behind the head shape.
7. Pin the pieces then sew them with whip stitch in matching thread, removing the pins as you sew.
8. Add jingle bells to the front antlers. Use a double thickness of dark brown thread, sewing each bell securely with three or four stitches. To avoid carrying your thread between the bells and creating long, snag-able stitches inside the jumper, finish your stitching after sewing each bell.
9. Sew a red pompom to the reindeer's face to create the nose. Use a double thickness of red thread, sewing a few stitches through the centre of the pompom.
10. Finally, add a large white pompom to the back of the reindeer to create the tail. Sew it securely in place with a few stitches of white thread.
The front of your finished jumper should now look like this...
... and the back like this:
This tutorial is for personal use only: you can use it to make as many jumpers (or cushions!) as you want for yourself or as gifts, but please don't make any for sale. You may borrow a photo or two if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire post or share the pattern itself on your site. Thanks!
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