Santa, deconstructed

If you don't want to know what is inside my Santas, don't look at this post. It is photo heavy, and many intimate details are revealed!

Here is a lot of the stuff needed to make a Santa.

Faces, armatures and boots are made in advance....in multiples. A number of years back, Dave was recuperating from surgery and he cut out hundreds of pairs of boots for the Santas. I sewed this Santas clothing before I decided to blog about it, so I have no photos of that process. I sewed a sweater, mittens, pants and a cap.

The big whitish thing to the right of the face is an armature, made from fencing wire, stuffing and strips of cloth wrapped around to make a basic humanoid shape, no hands, feet or head. (Not anatomically correct, either)

Here, I am gluing a stuffed mitten to the end of an arm. I use hot glue and burn myself more often than one might think....but if one knows how clumsy I am one might not be surprised.

Pants on, no feet yet

Boots being tied on, the fronts of the boots are stuffed,,, that's right, Santa has no feet inside his boots or hands inside his mittens!

Sweater on, no head yet.

The beginning of a head

The face is glued to the foam ball and wrapped to simulate a normal shaped head,

Then I set him aside for a few minutes while I get the beard ready.

Washed locks from an angora goat make a nice, realistic and true to scale beard.

I tease out the locks, and make a small pile, saving a nice piece of mohair for the moustache.

Special glue is used to apply the beard to the face, note he does not have a moustache or eyebrows yet.

Finished with the face, I turn my attention to the hat. Earlier, I cut and sewed a basic stocking cap from fabric, I will trim it with this lovely mink cuff,

With the lining removed, I cut the mink from the backside with a razor , maintaining the beauty of the fur. ( I also cut myself at this point) I told you I am clumsy.

Santa is ready to be put into position, and his limbs bent to shape.

Here is the finished product, ready for the sledding hill.