Today I'm going to show you how to make sock snowmen! Sock snowmen are a festive season decoration for the wintertime that are fun and easy to do. My family and I have had fun making a couple together during the season, so they make great holiday activities or even gifts!

I hope everyone enjoys these snowmen as much as my family and I did! The steps are relatively simple, and I'll break them down as much as I can. The materials can be found in any craft store, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding them, and they can also all be found on Amazon.

Have fun!

Step 1: Materials

1. Tube Sock without the heel (any color you want, but for our purposes, I'll use solid white)

- you can use any size to make smaller or larger snowmen!

2. Stuffing

⁃ You need stuffing for your snowman! I used Poly-Fil Polyester Fiberfill stuffing (a picture of which is on the stuffing step of this instructable), but any craft stuffing should do

3. Bead filling

⁃ For my snowman, I used Poly-Fil Poly-Pellets (a picture of package can be found on the beads step of this instructable), but any small craft filling beads should do

⁃ This is totally optional! With beads in the bottom, you snowman will stand on his own, but you can also skip the beads and make a soft cuddle snowman with just stuffing, instead

4. Funnel + measuring cup

⁃ These are also optional. It's really just to make getting the beads into the sock easier!

5. String

⁃ a thin string that can be easily hidden

⁃ Can also be replaced by thin yarn, which I used for my own snowman (anything that will tie it will do, really!)

- keep durability in mind when you choose your tying material; yarn will be perfectly fine for decorative snowmen, but if its going to be carried around or played with excessively, more durable string may be a better choice

6. Glue

⁃ For my snowman, I used Aleene's All-Purpose Adhesive Original Tacky Glue, but any craft fabric glue should work (this is for the decorations, so make sure its fabric glue that will work on your sock!)

- A hot glue gun is completely optional, but if you have heavier decorations like the bells I use in later steps, its a stronger option than just fabric glue. For things like pompoms and buttons, though, fabric glue should work just fine.

7. Scissors

⁃ this is pretty straight forward; no special scissors needed, just ones that will cut your string and felt

8. Miscellaneous decorations

⁃ this is really up to you; you can include anything on your snowman that you want to

⁃ I generally make my snowmen with pompoms, felt for the scarf, and a bit of makeup blush for rosy cheeks, but buttons, both plain and holiday/winter themed, have been used on multiple snowmen around the house! You can also choose to replace pompom eyes with googly eyes, if you wish!

- I will be giving steps to show how I decorated my own snowman, but every snowman can be unique, so decorations are completely up to you

Step 2: Bead Filling

1. pour about a cup of beads into your measuring cup (if you've chosen to forgo a measuring cup, an estimate in any other cup will do)

- I do recommend pouring them into a cup first just to make it easier, but you can pour beads from the bag directly into the funnel if you want

2. Funnel

- now that you have your beads, pour them slowly into a funnel in the sock

3. You may not need all of the beads, just a decent amount in the bottom in order to keep the sock upright; I only used a half-cup for my sock, but depending on the size of the sock, this will probably vary

Step 3: Stuffing

1. The stuffing will take a bit of time

- scrunching down the sock to put the stuffing at the bottom directly is the easiest way to do it, instead of trying to fit your whole arm in the sock!

2. It will take a good amount of stuffing, so don't be concerned if you notice you still need more stuffing when you thought you'd pulled out enough

3. The size of the snowman is up to you

- I like my snowmen pretty squishy so I stuffed a lot of stuffing in the sock, but you don't need to pack it with as much stuffing as I did!

4. It's easiest to measure the amount of stuffing you still need by deciding on the proportions of your head and body

- how big do you want your head to be? (usually smaller than the body, but I digress). When you have the proportion between head and body that you want, stop stuffing

5. Use up most of the sock

- if you want a smaller snowman, that means don't use a big sock, because you don't want a lot of excess sock

6. That said, you don't want to fill it to the top either. We're going to make a hat for our snowman out of the top at a later stage, so you want to leave a few inches. I have left about four inches of my sock unstuffed, but if you want to give it more or less stuffing, there's a bit of wiggle room for how much sock you should leave unstuffed.

Step 4: String

1. First, gather up your unstuffed sock and tie a knot at the base of it, separating the stuffed portion of the sock from the unstuffed

⁃ tie it in a secure knot (I knotted it a couple time just in case)

2. Tie the head off to create a neck. This will be a little difficult to tie a knot because the stuffing won't want to stay squeezed in the neck while you tie the knot

- its easiest to get a friend to put their finger there for you! It'll take two seconds, and make your life easier

3. Tie this securely, as well. As long as you don't have pillow fights with your poor snowman, a knot and wrapping the excess string around and tucking it under OR cutting off the excess should be fine

- if you are planning to do battle with your snowman, you might want to find something sturdier than the yarn I used!

Step 5: Hat

1. This is pretty easy! Just keep folding the hat over until you've got it where you want it! Make sure to leave enough space of the head for a face, but other than that, your snowman can have any type of hat he wants!

Step 6: Decorations!

This is the step you've been waiting for, I'm sure - it's time to decorate your snowman!

1. I glued a pompom on top of my snowman's hat. If this is a step you want to do, I recommend doing it first, because then you can lay your snowman on a table to do his buttons down the front and a lot of the rest of his decorations with his hat pressed up against something so the pompom glues on firmly.

2. You can use either pompoms or buttons to make his buttons down the front - it's up to you to choose!

- These can just be glued on with fabric glue as they are not that heavy, but make sure you use enough. I used quite a bit of glue. The glue on the pompom you see in the picture actually wasn't enough, so I had to use a lot more, or my snowman's buttons kept falling off!

3. Googly eyes, buttons, or pompoms can all work for eyes

- These usually stay with fabric glue, as well; no need for a glue gun here!

4. Noses can be made from pompoms or buttons (or googly eyes, I suppose, if that's what you want ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

5. Mouth can be drawn on with Sharpie or some other pen, or you can glue some string on if you would prefer

- I ended up using fabric paint because I had it on hand, but its definitely not necessary to go out and buy fabric paint! Most of the snowmen I've made have Sharpie smiles, but be warned, pen will spread a bit more on fabric than paint will.

6. I usually put a bit of blush on my snowmen to give them rosy winter cheeks, but this is totally optional

- Just putting a bit on the pad of a finger and rubbing it gently in a circle on your snowman's cheeks is fine; don't use too much blush, or your snowman will have extremely pink cheeks!

- Where you possibly needed more stuffing or glue than you thought you would, you will probably need a lot less blush than you think you do, so remember that its easier to add some if you want it darker than take some off!

7. Wrap some felt around your snowman's neck both to cover up that string and to make him look more winter themed

- you can really make this out of anything you want; ribbon would work, too, but I prefer felt

⁃ The scarf can be in any color you wish, and any width, from a thin scarf to a thick one, but remember that you want to be able to tie it tight so it doesn't fall off

- I like to cut the ends a bit to make fringe, but this is optional, as well. If you don't like how it looks, skip this step!

8. Your snowman's hat is completely up to you! I put some bells and a festive button on mine, but I encourage you to get creative with your own snowman's hat.

- Some options are leaving your snowman's hat plain or decorating it with buttons, pompoms, fabric for a rim, or even a doll-sized hat if you have one on hand; anything will do!

- This is where my glue gun came in! I glued bells to my snowman's hat, and due to them being heavier than buttons or pompoms, I decided to use a glue gun to secure them rather than fabric glue.

- If you don't want something heavy that needs a little more strength to hold it on than fabric glue, you don't really need a glue gun, but you can use one if you want!

After your glue dries, your snowman is done! He'll bring a little festive cheer anywhere you put him!