Sock snowmen

Sock snowmen are so simple and easy to make. It is also a great way to reuse odd and old socks that you no longer need or want. The socks don’t even need to be white you can use any coloured or patterned socks you like. We filled our snowman with rice but you could use sand, beans, lentils or anything else you can think of like pebbles, straw, sawdust, dried grass, scraps of fabric or even more old socks.

To make it easier for small children to fill the socks you can use a toll of tape to open up the end. Simply roll the sock ends over the tape to form a tube. Then pour in your filling until the sock is two thirds full. Now you can use a piece of string, wool, ribbon or an elastic band to divide the filled sock near the middle to form the head and body sections.

You can use another piece of string, wool, ribbon or an elastic band to tightly tie the top of the head section and seal the filling in. You should then have a small length of empty sock left hanging from the top. If you cut this off you can turn it into a hat for your snowman. Simply turn it inside out and the the cut end securely with a piece of string.

When you turn the sock end back the right way you should now have a cute little hat that fits perfectly on your snowman. You can easily turn it into a bobble hat by gliding a pop pom onto the end. Or add additional decorations using ribbons or buttons. Alternatively you could use a different coloured or patterned sock to make your snowman a hat.

You could also use another sock to make your snowman a simple scarf or you could make a scarf using scrap fabric strips, ribbon, pieces pf string, wool or felt. Now all your snowman needs is a smile, nose, eyes and buttons. You can draw or paint these details on or use glue to stick on buttons, natural objects, scrap fabric, paper, card or found objects.

Finally you could colour in your snowman hats using paint or pens and stick or sew on any extra details you like to the snowmen to personalise them and make them special to you. No one snowman ends up the same, it’s lovely to see all the different varieties of snowman you can create.

How about making a whole family of snowman or creating different characters from your imagination or storybooks. You could give your snowmen as gifts or use them as story props or decorations. They are also great fun to use in role playing games and pretend puppet shows. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.