Recently while I was looking around for some ideas for my DIY plaid Christmas pillows, I came across these adorable plaid reindeer from Pottery Barn. Theirs were a little larger (and pricier) than I wanted but they were so cute and fit in perfectly with my plaid Christmas theme, so I decided to make some of my own. Today I am sharing how I made my DIY plaid fabric reindeer so maybe you can make some too. 🙂

I am smitten with plaid and these reindeer are no exception. So much so that I have themed my Christmas decor this year with anything and everything plaid! And because I made the deer myself, they coordinate fantastically! They are made with the same plaid fabric that I have used in other areas like on my pillows, a backdrop for the mantel, ribbon and even on my presents! Ha! I will be sharing all that decor with you soon but first back to these cute little reindeer.

I have to say I am elated with how they turned out! You never know when you start a DIY project how it is really going to turn out. Not to mention when you are trying to recreate something, it can be hard to get the end result to resemble the inspiration. I am pretty happy with the end result here. What do you think?

I wanted to find some branches for the antlers that really resembled the PB ones, but I was not able to. However, I found a Christmas pick at Walmart and it even had some fuzzy material on the branches so I thought that would work as a replacement. They end being longer and not as wide but I think they work well. 

*There are links to products in this post that I use or are similar to products I use. If you buy something from one of these links, I may make a small commission (with no additional cost to you) from the purchase. I will not recommend anything that I would not buy myself.

For this project you will need:

• Reindeer templates
• Plaid fabric (I found mine at Hobby Lobby)
• Poly-Fil stuffing
• 1/4″ Dowels (2)
• Something to resemblance branches (I found a Christmas pick at Walmart)
• Mini pine cones
• Tan, red and black felt
• Sewing machine
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• White acrylic paint/paintbrush/glitter (optional)
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pins

Reindeer Body

Print off the templates for the reindeer. I just printed mine on regular paper since it was going to be a one time use but you could also print onto card stock for a sturdier template.

Cut out the template and lay it on your plaid fabric. You will double over the fabric to cut out the reindeer so you want to cut double the length of the fabric that you need. Leave a little room above and below the template as well. Since this is a plaid fabric, I wanted the plaid to match up exactly on my seams so I made sure to measure the length I needed from a line where the pattern would mirror itself when folded over.

Fold the fabric onto itself wrong side up making sure the plaid lines all line up.

I pinned the fabric together to make sure it did not shift when tracing and cutting out the pattern. Since I had a little room to play with, I traced the design where I thought the plaid pattern looked the best. I wanted both the red/green portions and white portions to show up on the reindeer and the ears.

When sewing this pattern, I sewed directly on the line with exception of the dotted yellow line in the picture above. Do not sew that portion because that is where you will turn the fabric right side out. 🙂 Make sure you back stitch when you start and stop sewing.

After sewing, cut out around the reindeer and ears leaving a small “seam allowance”. 

Turn the pieces right side out using the open spaces. It is helpful to use something small and pointed like a pencil or closed pen to push out the fabric along the seams.

Now stuff the reindeer with the Poly-Fil stuffing. Make sure to get it all the way up into the nose, head and neck. Use more than you think you need. You want your reindeer plump. 😉

Now we have to deal with that opening on the bottom of the reindeer. This is where you have to put some hand sewing skills to work. Don’t worry, it is easy! A little whip stitch takes care of that in no time. If you don’t know how to do a whip stitch, check for some videos on You Tube. They can show you much better than I can. I do not claim to be a hand sewing expert by any means. Ha! But I get the job done.

Reindeer Ears

Next we have to tackle the ears. Grab the ears that you sewed and turned right side out earlier. Take one of the ears and fold both sides in lengthwise to meet up in the middle. Sew a line 1″ down from the top of the ear for the large sized reindeer. Then sew another line 1/2″ underneath that one. For the smaller reindeer, sew the first line at 3/4″ and the second line 3/8″ below that. Cut off the remaining portion of the ear below the second line.

Initially I was not sure how I was going to do the ears. I thought about incorporating them into the sewing pattern but that was going to be more difficult. So I took the easy way out and decided to hot glue them on. 😉 Put some hot glue on the portion of the ear between the two sew lines and firmly hold it down on the reindeer head for about 5 seconds. I just eyeballed where I wanted the ears to go. To make the ears stick back a little, instead of sticking straight up, I put a dab of glue right behind the ear and held it back for about 5 seconds.

Reindeer Legs

To make the legs, we cut the 1/4″ dowel down to 6″ for the small deer and 7″ for the large deer. There were two ways I covered the legs. For the smaller deer, I cut 1/2″ strips from the long side of a piece of tan felt. Starting at the bottom of the dowel, leave a bit hanging off and wrap the felt diagonally. Work in small sections gluing the felt on as you wrap. You can overlap the felt a bit if you want to but I just opted to wrap it next to each other. Using some scissors, snip off the extra felt on the ends.

For the larger reindeer, I cut an 1″ strip of felt off the short edge. This method involves wrapping the felt around the dowel in one big section. Run a bead of hot glue down the center of the felt lengthwise and place your dowel on top. Roll the dowel around on the counter to make sure the glue is evenly adhering to the dowel. Repeat this step a couple times on each side of the dowel. Use the glue sparingly as you don’t want a bunch of extra glue oozing out the sides. When you get to the last portion, work in one inch sections. Use a tiny bit of glue in the opening and pat the two edges together. Roll the dowel on the counter after each section to help make your joint look flush. Trim off any extra felt on the ends.

To insert the legs into the reindeer, mark some dots on the bottom of the deer where you want the legs to go. I measured about 1/2″ from the center seam on both sides for the larger deer and 3/8″ from the center for the small deer. Using some sharp scissors, snip a small ‘X’ about 1/8″ in size on each dot.

Twist in one of the legs until about an inch is inside the deer. There is no need for hot glue and the felt will hold in the cut fabric so you should not have to worry about fraying edges. Adjust if needed so the deer stands up evenly.

Reindeer Tail and Antlers

For the tail, I used some mini pine cones that I found at Walmart in the mini tree section. I used a small paintbrush and lightly brushed some white paint on the outside of the pine cone. Then sprinkled on some fine glitter on the wet paint. This is totally optional if you like the pine cone as it is originally. Snip off the stem of the pine cone and hot glue it onto the reindeer’s butt. 🙂

For the antlers, I cut off some of the pick where I thought it looked the fullest. Leave about a 1″ stem to insert into the deer. I trimmed down the ones for the smaller reindeer so they were not as long.

Mark a couple dots behind the ears where you want the antlers to go. I just eyeballed this. Use something sharp to poke holes, I used an ice pick. Insert the antlers into the holes being very gentle as to not knock off the fuzzy stuff on the antlers. Again there is no need for hot glue if you insert the whole length of the stem.  

Now admire your work! The overall dimensions for my finished small reindeer is 9 1/4″ high (12″ with the antlers) by 6″ long. The large reindeer dimensions are 10 3/4″ high (a little over 13″ with antlers) by 7″ long.

I almost forgot! Cut some cute scarves for your reindeer. I cut off the long edge of a piece of felt. The scarf on the smaller deer is about 3/4″ wide and the one on the larger deer is about 7/8″ wide.

I will be back next week to share some Christmas decor with you. How are you coming along on your Christmas preparations? I feel like I still have a ways to go! It feels like Christmas snuck up on me this year! Have a wonderful week!