Can't catch me

Doggit

Emilio and Alfred

Cliff and Bernard
Here's some Christmas crafting I spontaneously picked up one Saturday after being inspired by My Paper Crane's (scroll down). I named them alphabetically as I made them, and made them all different, mostly by changing the mouth. I think the gingerbread men make cute little gifts.

Materials: pencil, scissors for paper, scissors for cloth, tracing paper, pins, brown felt (I got the wooliest kind I could find, i.e., not 100% polyester), teeny rick-rack, white hand quilting thread, brown hand quilting thread (you could use embriodery thread, but I think the hand quilting thread is easier and sturdier), red pom poms, black marker, 12mm googly eyes, pink embroidery thread, hot glue gun, embroidery needles, polyester stuffing (polyfill).

Draw a gingerbread shape on tracing paper, cut out, pin to felt that's folded so you're cutting out two shapes at once, cut out felt.

On one piece of felt, use a needle and white hand quilting thread to tack on the rick-rack. Sew every three or four bumps. Sew on the pom poms. Next, plug in ye old hot glue gun. Decide placement of googly eyes, dot the fabric with a marker. Glue the eyes to desired location. Embroider mouth--I used undivided embroidery thread.

Ta-dah! A gingerbread personality!

Now pin together the front and back of the gingerbread man, leaving the face where you can see it--there's no turning in this pattern. Whip stitch around the edges of the arms and legs with brown hand quilting thread. Before sewing up the head, stuff the arms and legs with polyfill. I used a pencil to get the stuffing all the way in there. I didn't stuff them as much as possible, just enough to give them a third dimension.

Whip stitch most of the head, leaving a small gap for more polyfill. Add more stuffing to the body. Now finish up the whip stitching. You have a gingerbread man!