Step 5

 Thank you for all the answers to my call. I am happy to see that you are following this challenge and either do it already or plan to do it after you finish your Christmas gifts!

I would like to explain that the Santa body you are making now is going to be almost completely covered by appliqué and embroidery so don't worry if it still doesn't look quite ok for you!! :-)

I will be showing today the finished body - well, quite finished - so that you prepare for the fun of embellishing it with other fabrics and threads.

You should prepare some matching fabrics and threads in the colours you want to use. I will be doing a woods Santa so that my choice is one of natural dyed and printed fabrics. You can use whatever you like most. Christmas fabrics, some collection of fabrics you haven't used yet that is laying in some cupboard...  whatever. Try to use different kinds of fabrics, cheesecloth, tulle, gaze, cotton, sheers, etc. As for the embellishments you surely have loads of them.

Now to the Santa I'm making:

I put some fabrics on top of the Santa to see how they look like. I'm only looking at it at this point.

I think I will use some branches as arms when the moment comes...

I like to skew the face so that it doesn't look too straight.

The fabric I put under the face can work as a hat. I'm doing this:

First I fixed the fabric that is going to show under the face and be the hat. I fixed it with running stitches and small backstitches every 1cm/ 1/2"

After that I appliqué the face.

I pinched the fabric with my fingers till I got it right, the way I wanted it to be. From the front and from the back.

Now I'm happy with the way it looks.

I fixed it with some appliqué stitches.

Finished!

Now you can begin with the embellishment of the Santa!

I must say that it's a wonderful surface to work on. It is very forgiving and easy to stitch.

I won't be doing a neat appliqué with turned edges (you are of course free to do if you like it, it depends on the way you want it to look at the end! I will be happy to see different outcomes) because mine is a rustic type of Santa.

It matches the woods where I walked this morning:

I would like to show you some Santas done in the group so that you can see the wonderful possibilities!:

  

This wonderful Santa was done by Sarah Meek. It's a great beginning!

This is also a great face from Oliva Garcia.

From Marjan Wolfs a wonderful interpretation on fabric!

From 

Marjon Verhoeven with a big moustache!:

Please try to send them directly to Pinterest. I sent you an invite. You just have to accept it. 

Log into Pinterest and you  can upload your Santa in the Santa folder!