Last minute hand made Christmas Gifts - Roving Fairies tutorial

I have been meaning to share some craft tutorials for a while now, unfortunately Christmas the opening of a second shop and a Toddler who requires constant entertainment has meant that this project has been on the back burner for a while. Maybe next year Ill manage to get everything done.... Anyway the same reasons that have led me to neglect this blog have also lead me to end up with not enough time to make all the handmade Christmas gifts traditionally required by my family. So as I make my last minute gifts this year I will share them so you can enjoy a bit of Christmas crafting.

My First Tutorial will be for roving Christmas fairies.

ROVING FAIRIES

Materials Needed:

Wool roving

Large wooden bead

Craft wire

yarn

Embellishments

sewing needle

scissors

wire pliers

ribbon

Instructions

Thread wire through the bead twist a loop at each end tie a ribbon to the top loop then take a second piece of wire add a loop at each end and twist around the body for the arms

wrap arms and body in yarn to secure arms in place (you can also run the yarn through the centre of the bead and secure to the top loop to stop the arms dropping down)

Start building the fairies dress by taking strips of roving stretching them out and wrapping over her shoulders and around her waist (tying the first layer or two can help add volume and shape. Use a needle to carefully felt the dress a little around the waist (little gentle stabbing action, watch your fingers!) then take some yarn and wrap and sew around her waist (again you can anchor this through the head and into the top loop)

To make the hair start by attaching a long length of yarn to the wire loop at the top of the head, wind the yarn round you hand several times to make a big loop, wind the yarn around the top of the loop and attach again to the top of the head. Position the hair loop and tie and at the back into a pony tailthen take another length of yarn and loosely run it between the pony tie and the top of the head to fill in the fairies bald spot, trim the end off of the hair plait and tie at the bottom with another piece of yarn

Trim and tidy your fairies skirt and add embellishments, enjoy experimenting with different hairstyles and details to create lots of unique fairy decorations to hang in the tree or you could make lots of little fairies and use a hoop decorated with Ribbons to make a Waldorf style fairy mobile.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!