One of my fondest childhood memories is of waking up to discover the garden covered in snow. We would put-on our multicoloured ski gear with my sisters and run outside in order to build (short-lived) snowmen! It doesn’t snow that much where I’m from so they would usually look like half slush half mud snowmen but it didn’t spoil the fun one bit.
With this trio of bag charms – a Penguin, a Snowman and the cutest Teddy Bear, I am hoping to evoke and to share some of that holiday spirit with you. So grab your tools and let’s get crafting! And if you’d like more Christmas cuteness have a look at those 3 bag charms I designed last year as well as this baubles-making tutorial.
Select options
This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Walk-through
Although there are 3 different patterns in the Winter Bag Charms Patterns Pack, most of the steps to follow to create each bag charm are identical. Thus if only one bag charm is showcased to illustrate a step it means that the procedure to follow is identical for the other ones.
Since the assembly sequence is unique to each bag charm it will be detailed individually.
Print it on US letter or A4 paper depending on the version you downloaded.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
Keep the assembly diagram to help you position the pieces later on during the stitching process.
Securing the pieces of the pattern on the leather
Roughly cut-out around the different elements of the pattern and secure them to your piece(s) of leather with masking tape.
Punching the stitching holes
Use 1mm stitching prongs or a 1mm hole punch to punch the stitching holes directly on top of the paper.
Use a 5mm hole punch to punch-out the eyes of the penguin and the teddy bear and a 7.5mm hole punch for the eyes of the snowman.
Keep the little pieces corresponding to the eyes as we will glue them back-in after dyeing them black.
Cutting-out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut-out all the pieces of the bag charm.
You can use a 7.5mm hole punch for the buttons (C) of the snowman (elements denoted as D on the pattern) and a 10mm hole punch for the cheeks of the penguin (E) and the snowman (B).
.
For the teddy bear, the toes (N) can be challenging to cut-out. You can use a 5mm hole punch to punch them out if you don’t mind having round toes instead of oval ones.
Dyeing the leather
Dye all the elements of the bag charms according to your preferences.
For the Snowman, the triangle denoted A on the pattern is going to be the nose so you probably want to dye it orange.
I also used gold Angelus paint for the loops of each bag charm.
Gluing-in the eyes
Apply some leather glue to the edges the eye sockets. Push the pieces in their original hole on the face (A for the Penguin, the Teddy Bear and the Snowman) and add a generous amount of glue at the back to secure them in place.
Wait for it to dry completely until moving on to the next step.
Assembly process
The Penguin
First stitch the face (A) and the belly (B) of the penguin to the front body (C).
Then stitch the beak (D), the cheeks (E) and the feet (F1 & F2) to the face (A) and front body (C).
To complete the penguin’s body, stitch the front and back together (A & G).
Add the fins in between along the way (H1 & H2)
Don’t forget to add some polyester stuffing before stitching the belly shut.
Once you reach the top of the head, add the loop (I).
Add some stuffing to the head and finish stitching the two sides of the body.
To complete the penguin, stitch the scarf around its neck.
The scarf is made-up of two elements. J loops around the neck with the two holes on each end overlapping. K is folded over J. Thread your needles through both holes facing you in K, then through the holes at both ends of J. Come out through K. Pull tight and make a double knot.
The Snowman
First things first: we need to make the carrot nose!
In order to do so we are going to wet-form the little triangle denoted A. Dip the piece in the water. Unfold the 3 flaps at a 90 degrees angle and fold the triangle in half over itself.
Roll the folded triangle between your fingers to shape it into a cone and set-it aside to dry completely.
While the nose is drying, stitch the cheeks (B) and the buttons (C) to the front body (D). Stitch the mouth as well with black thread.
When the nose (A) is completely dry, insert it in the hole at the center of the face and glue it to the back of the face using the 3 flaps in order to do so.
Stitch the two halves of each arm (E1 and E2) together and cram some stuffing inside to give them a bit of thickness.
Stitch the two halves of the bowl of the hat (F) together, adding the loop (G) in between at the top.
Do not stitch the bottom-most straight stitch line.
Add some stuffing.
Stitch the front (D) and the back (H) of the snowman together, starting by the belly.
Add the arms (E) in between the two layers.
Add some stuffing to the belly before closing it.
Once the belly is stitched, stitch around the face. Leave the top-most 5 holes un-stitched as this is where the hat will connect to the head.
Once I had completed that step, it dawn on me that it could be done with a single thread instead of using two – one for the belly and one for the head – as I did. See the diagram for more details.
Let’s add the hat now. The first two stitches connect the two halves of the brim (I). The next stitch connects the two halves of the brim (I) and the two halves of the bowl (F).
Then the hat is positioned over the snowman’s head. The next 5 stitches connect the front-facing half of the brim, the front-facing of the bowl, the two layers of the snowman’s head, the other half of the bowl and the other half of the brim in that order.
Finish stitching the hat as you started for the last 3 stitches.
To complete the snowman, stitch the scarf around its neck.
The scarf is made-up of two elements. J loops around the neck with the two holes on each end overlapping. K is folded over J. Thread your needles through both holes facing you in K, then through the holes at both ends of J. Come out through K. Pull tight and make a double knot.
The Teddy Bear
Let’s begin by stitching the snout of the teddy bear.
First stitch element A to the face (B). Then element C over element A – leaving the top-most 3 holes un-stitched. Then the tip of the nose D over C.
Complete the face by stitching-on the cheeks (E).
Stitch the details (N & M) onto each of the two paws (O1 & O2).
To assemble the body, first stitch the belly (F) to the front of the lower body (G).
Now comes the time to create the sugar cane.
First stitch the holy leaves (I over J) to the front of the sugar cane (H1).
Then stitch the two halves of the sugar cane (H1 and H2) together, adding the red strips (L1 to L6) along the way. Start stitching at the top-right corner of strip L2 and progress counter-clockwise.
Element K goes in between the two halves of the sugar cane in order to add thickness to it. As such it is optional.
We started specifically at the corner of L2 because the 4 holes corresponding to this strip connect to the belly in order to secure the sugar cane to the body. Thus stitch the sugar cane to the body when you reach L2 again (this is illustrated by the third image).
To complete the lower half of the teddy bear, stitch the front (G) to the back (Q). Leave the 6 top-most holes corresponding to the neck un-stitched.
Stitch the arms (R1 & R2) and the feet (O1 & O2) over the front of the lower-body (G) along the way.
Finally add some stuffing through the neck.
Glue the back of the feet (P1 and P2) in place.
Glue the first layer of the ears (X1 & X2) to the other layer (Y1 & Y2).
Stitch the two halves of the tip of the hat (S), adding the loop (T) at the top between the two layers.
Do not stitch the bottom-most stitch line.
Add some stuffing.
Let’s attach the face to the body.
Start stitching the two halves of the face (B & U) together. Leave the top-most stitch line un-stitched.
Stitch the neck of the body in between the two layers of the face.
To create the beanie we’ll start by stitching the red bands (V) to the surrounding elements (B, U, W, X1, X2, Y1, Y2). The right-most and left-most 3 stitching holes of the red band connect all layers together. The other holes in between only connect to the elements that are part of the same layer. Meaning that you’ll first stitch around the front-facing red band. Then turn the teddy bear around and stitch the back-facing part of the red band to the back of the face and the back of the beanie.
It is more complicated to do it this way instead of just stitching through all layers at once around the red band. However it makes for a better looking result once the stuffing is added.
Once the red band is in place, add stuffing to the head and the beanie.
Close the beanie by stitching its two halves together.
Add the tip in between once you reach the top.
There you go! This one was definitely a bit finicky with all the little details but it was worth it wasn’t it?
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make them your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project:
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
Tutorial
Winter Bag Charms
4 hours / bag charm
Moderate
Common for leathercraft
One of my fondest childhood memories is of waking up to discover the garden covered in snow. We would put-on our multicoloured ski gear with my sisters and run outside in order to build (short-lived) snowmen! It doesn’t snow that much where I’m from so they would usually look like half slush half mud snowmen but it didn’t spoil the fun one bit.
With this trio of bag charms – a Penguin, a Snowman and the cutest Teddy Bear, I am hoping to evoke and to share some of that holiday spirit with you. So grab your tools and let’s get crafting! And if you’d like more Christmas cuteness have a look at those 3 bag charms I designed last year as well as this baubles-making tutorial.
Requirements
Skills
Tools
Bill of Materials
Pattern
Winter Bag Charms Patterns Pack
Walk-through
Although there are 3 different patterns in the Winter Bag Charms Patterns Pack, most of the steps to follow to create each bag charm are identical. Thus if only one bag charm is showcased to illustrate a step it means that the procedure to follow is identical for the other ones.
Since the assembly sequence is unique to each bag charm it will be detailed individually.
Printing the pattern
You can get the patterns here.
Print it on US letter or A4 paper depending on the version you downloaded.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the reference found at the bottom of each page.
Keep the assembly diagram to help you position the pieces later on during the stitching process.
Securing the pieces of the pattern on the leather
Roughly cut-out around the different elements of the pattern and secure them to your piece(s) of leather with masking tape.
Punching the stitching holes
Use 1mm stitching prongs or a 1mm hole punch to punch the stitching holes directly on top of the paper.
Use a 5mm hole punch to punch-out the eyes of the penguin and the teddy bear and a 7.5mm hole punch for the eyes of the snowman.
Keep the little pieces corresponding to the eyes as we will glue them back-in after dyeing them black.
Cutting-out the pieces of the project
Using a pair of scissors or an X-Acto knife, cut-out all the pieces of the bag charm.
You can use a 7.5mm hole punch for the buttons (C) of the snowman (elements denoted as D on the pattern) and a 10mm hole punch for the cheeks of the penguin (E) and the snowman (B).
.For the teddy bear, the toes (N) can be challenging to cut-out. You can use a 5mm hole punch to punch them out if you don’t mind having round toes instead of oval ones.
Dyeing the leather
Dye all the elements of the bag charms according to your preferences.
For the Snowman, the triangle denoted A on the pattern is going to be the nose so you probably want to dye it orange.
I also used gold Angelus paint for the loops of each bag charm.
Gluing-in the eyes
Apply some leather glue to the edges the eye sockets. Push the pieces in their original hole on the face (A for the Penguin, the Teddy Bear and the Snowman) and add a generous amount of glue at the back to secure them in place.
Wait for it to dry completely until moving on to the next step.
Assembly process
The Penguin
First stitch the face (A) and the belly (B) of the penguin to the front body (C).
Then stitch the beak (D), the cheeks (E) and the feet (F1 & F2) to the face (A) and front body (C).
To complete the penguin’s body, stitch the front and back together (A & G).
Add the fins in between along the way (H1 & H2)
Don’t forget to add some polyester stuffing before stitching the belly shut.
Once you reach the top of the head, add the loop (I).
Add some stuffing to the head and finish stitching the two sides of the body.
To complete the penguin, stitch the scarf around its neck.
The scarf is made-up of two elements. J loops around the neck with the two holes on each end overlapping. K is folded over J. Thread your needles through both holes facing you in K, then through the holes at both ends of J. Come out through K. Pull tight and make a double knot.
The Snowman
First things first: we need to make the carrot nose!
In order to do so we are going to wet-form the little triangle denoted A. Dip the piece in the water. Unfold the 3 flaps at a 90 degrees angle and fold the triangle in half over itself.
Roll the folded triangle between your fingers to shape it into a cone and set-it aside to dry completely.
While the nose is drying, stitch the cheeks (B) and the buttons (C) to the front body (D). Stitch the mouth as well with black thread.
When the nose (A) is completely dry, insert it in the hole at the center of the face and glue it to the back of the face using the 3 flaps in order to do so.
Stitch the two halves of each arm (E1 and E2) together and cram some stuffing inside to give them a bit of thickness.
Stitch the two halves of the bowl of the hat (F) together, adding the loop (G) in between at the top.
Do not stitch the bottom-most straight stitch line.
Add some stuffing.
Stitch the front (D) and the back (H) of the snowman together, starting by the belly.
Add the arms (E) in between the two layers.
Add some stuffing to the belly before closing it.
Once the belly is stitched, stitch around the face. Leave the top-most 5 holes un-stitched as this is where the hat will connect to the head.
Once I had completed that step, it dawn on me that it could be done with a single thread instead of using two – one for the belly and one for the head – as I did. See the diagram for more details.
Let’s add the hat now. The first two stitches connect the two halves of the brim (I). The next stitch connects the two halves of the brim (I) and the two halves of the bowl (F).
Then the hat is positioned over the snowman’s head. The next 5 stitches connect the front-facing half of the brim, the front-facing of the bowl, the two layers of the snowman’s head, the other half of the bowl and the other half of the brim in that order.
Finish stitching the hat as you started for the last 3 stitches.
To complete the snowman, stitch the scarf around its neck.
The scarf is made-up of two elements. J loops around the neck with the two holes on each end overlapping. K is folded over J. Thread your needles through both holes facing you in K, then through the holes at both ends of J. Come out through K. Pull tight and make a double knot.
The Teddy Bear
Let’s begin by stitching the snout of the teddy bear.
First stitch element A to the face (B). Then element C over element A – leaving the top-most 3 holes un-stitched. Then the tip of the nose D over C.
Complete the face by stitching-on the cheeks (E).
Stitch the details (N & M) onto each of the two paws (O1 & O2).
To assemble the body, first stitch the belly (F) to the front of the lower body (G).
Now comes the time to create the sugar cane.
First stitch the holy leaves (I over J) to the front of the sugar cane (H1).
Then stitch the two halves of the sugar cane (H1 and H2) together, adding the red strips (L1 to L6) along the way. Start stitching at the top-right corner of strip L2 and progress counter-clockwise.
Element K goes in between the two halves of the sugar cane in order to add thickness to it. As such it is optional.
We started specifically at the corner of L2 because the 4 holes corresponding to this strip connect to the belly in order to secure the sugar cane to the body. Thus stitch the sugar cane to the body when you reach L2 again (this is illustrated by the third image).
To complete the lower half of the teddy bear, stitch the front (G) to the back (Q). Leave the 6 top-most holes corresponding to the neck un-stitched.
Stitch the arms (R1 & R2) and the feet (O1 & O2) over the front of the lower-body (G) along the way.
Finally add some stuffing through the neck.
Glue the back of the feet (P1 and P2) in place.
Glue the first layer of the ears (X1 & X2) to the other layer (Y1 & Y2).
Stitch the two halves of the tip of the hat (S), adding the loop (T) at the top between the two layers.
Do not stitch the bottom-most stitch line.
Add some stuffing.
Let’s attach the face to the body.
Start stitching the two halves of the face (B & U) together. Leave the top-most stitch line un-stitched.
Stitch the neck of the body in between the two layers of the face.
To create the beanie we’ll start by stitching the red bands (V) to the surrounding elements (B, U, W, X1, X2, Y1, Y2). The right-most and left-most 3 stitching holes of the red band connect all layers together. The other holes in between only connect to the elements that are part of the same layer. Meaning that you’ll first stitch around the front-facing red band. Then turn the teddy bear around and stitch the back-facing part of the red band to the back of the face and the back of the beanie.
It is more complicated to do it this way instead of just stitching through all layers at once around the red band. However it makes for a better looking result once the stuffing is added.
Once the red band is in place, add stuffing to the head and the beanie.
Close the beanie by stitching its two halves together.
Add the tip in between once you reach the top.
There you go! This one was definitely a bit finicky with all the little details but it was worth it wasn’t it?
Final result
I hope you enjoyed following along this tutorial. Please consider posting a photo of your creation in the comments below. It would mean a lot to me to see my little projects out into the world as you make them your own.
Any feedback/question about this tutorial or project idea that you’d like to see posted here is and always will be more than welcome.
Happy crafting!
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project: