The making of Miggins (and chums).

Following on from our 'Santa's Little Helper' post, here is how I made Miggins, Buba, Pickle, Luna & Jay from the following bits and bobs;

1. a wooden bead
2. a cotton reel
3. green garden twine
4. garden string
5. raffia paper and
6. glue
7. a little paint (and/or pens) for the reels, hats and facial features

The first thing I did was chose the colour for each elf and paint the reels and hats.  I went for autumnal colours, probably inspired subliminally by the season I was in rather than traditional Christmas colours...
Once the paint was dry, I chose my colour raffia ribbons which I wound with glue around the reels to dress my elves.
Then I cut 2 lengths of garden string and wound one end of each tightly into little flat spirals and glued them solid for the feet.  (A couple of elves got fancy footwear in the end but the others were more modest.)

Once the glued feet were dry, I decided how long I wanted the legs to be and stuck part of the string 'legs/thighs' to the bottom of the reel.  I then snipped off excess twines within the string and threaded the remaining lengths through the middle of the reel - then through the wooden bead head, gluing them to the head to hold it all tightly together from the feet through to the crown.  For some, these were the first strands of their hair.  (I so hope that this leg part makes sense!  The whole thing, although fiddly, is very easy but explaining this finds my words failing...)

I then glued on more string or green garden twine for hair and once the glue was dry, gave it a hair cut. This, for some reason, was my favourite part of the whole process.  Very satisfying indeed.
I wound once, then tied, another length of string under the top rim of the reel closest to the head and left lengths hanging down for arms which I glued into various positions.
Next I gave the elf a face and began work embellishing the hats - my second favourite part of the job.
The tiny paper mache cones which I had earlier painted, I decorated with ribbons before gluing them a'top the head of hair.  This, being the final step, was also satisfying - not unlike putting on fancy shoes and slapping on a lick of lipstick before leaving the house one of those very rare nights out when you've made an effort not to wear jeans and boots.

Before I knew it, I had a group of little elves sitting on my dresser smiling at me - and before long, they all had their little sacks of lavender sitting next to them.
Unfortunately, I think my oldest fox at almost 7 is too old to fall for this one again although he's actually the easiest to get into bed these days - and the earliest to rise... but I think foxes 2 and 3 might really like the idea again this year.  They will keep one eye on the elf, I think, waiting for it to twitch into life while the lavender sack in their bed helps them to calm down and settle into a much needed sleep.

These are not at all complicated to make but if you want to make one and don't have the bits, for £4.25 we can supply you with a kit containing all you need to make your own little elf, excluding paint and glue.  We have small 'small' or large 'small' reels (they are all pretty weeny) so please stipulate if you would like a shorty short or a tall short elf.  Just send us an email or leave us a comment and we will get back to you.

The kit contains;

• A reel
• A wooden bead
• A length of green garden twine
• A length of garden string
• A little cone
• A length of raffia 'ribbon'
• Fabric for the sack
• Home picked and dried lavender
• A length of fine fabric ribbon