Free Washcloth Crafts: How To Make A Reindeer Wash Cloth

Making reindeer washcloths is simple and cheap, they can be used as home decorations for the holidays or given as a holiday gift.

A reindeer washcloth is a great holiday craft, and it is a simple one too. It makes a charming decoration for your home. You could put it in your kitchen, or you could decorate your bathroom with some reindeer washcloths. You could also make this craft as a gift for someone, such as a friend, family member, co-worker, or your child's teacher. If you are feeling especially ambitious, you could make several of these washcloths so that you could make sets of four as gifts. If you like making holiday gift baskets, reindeer washcloths would be a festive addition. Reindeer really remind people of the holiday season, and how much fun Christmastime was when we were children and really believed in Santa's flying reindeer. Reindeer also invoke remembrances of the classic story of Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer. You can give your washcloth reindeer a red nose to be Rudolph, or you can go with a brown or black nose for Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, or Blitzen. For a lovely gift presentation, make all the reindeer, and label them each by name with fabric paint or embroidery, and then put them inside a little wooden sleigh with a red bow around it. They are sure to be a holiday hit.

In order to make your reindeer washcloth, you will need the following: a plain white washcloth or a square-foot of white terry cloth (towel) fabric; black, white, and brown fabric paints with writing tips (and any other colors that you might want to use for the nose, eyes, or anything else); stiff black felt (for the antlers); four small jingle bells with an eye-loop so that they can be threaded onto the washcloth; letter stencils (optional, if you want to write a name or "Happy Holidays" on the washcloth). Your washcloth is not going to be the entire body of a reindeer - just a reindeer head, and antlers.

Start by outlining the shape of your reindeer's head on the washcloth with a dull pencil. The top of the head should be at the top of one side of the washcloth, because the antlers will stick off the washcloth. Once you are satisfied with your outline, fill it in with your brown fabric paint, spreading the paint around with a sponge or brush. Wait for the paint to dry completely before you move on to the next step, because if you use more fabric paint over the brown paint before it is dried, your colors will run together and it will look very sloppy.

Step two is drawing the facial features onto your reindeer. Since this will require you to draw fine lines, practice writing with your writing tip fabric paints before you draw on the washcloth. Use your black paint to draw the mouth, eyes, and nose on (unless you want a red nose, of course). Once the black paint has dried, add some color to the eyes if desired.

The ears and antlers are going to be made out of the brown felt. Before you cut the antler and ear shapes out of your felt, draw an outline with a dull pencil, so that you can cut around the outline once you are satisfied with it. After you have cut them out, use a needle and thread to attach the antlers to your reindeer head. Finally, sew the jingle bells to the bottom of the washcloth (the side opposite the antlers). If you want to add writing to the washcloth, do so as your final step.

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