Feb
Starting With The Basic Pieces
So last December I decided to make a full nativity set because my mom kept hinting she wanted one and I figured how hard could it be right? Turned out to be way more involved than I thought but whatever. You’re gonna want to start with Mary and Joseph because they’re the biggest figures and if you mess up the proportions on them, everything else looks weird.
I used Red Heart Super Saver for most of it because honestly it’s cheap and I wasn’t about to spend a fortune on something that might turn out terrible. The beige color worked for the robes and I grabbed some of that Bernat Softee Baby yarn in white for the angel wings later. The skin tones were harder—I ended up mixing between a few different brands because the craft store near me had a terrible selection.
Making The Basic Body Shape
The body is basically just a cone shape which sounds simple but getting it to stand up on its own is annoying as hell. I stuffed mine with polyfil but you gotta pack it really tight at the bottom or they tip over. Some people use those weighted pellets but I didn’t have any and wasn’t gonna make another trip to the store.
Start with a magic ring and do like 6 single crochets, then increase every row until you get the width you want for the bottom of the robe. I made mine about 3 inches wide at the base. Then you just crochet straight up without increases for however tall you want them—mine were about 5 inches total. My cat kept trying to steal the polyfil while I was working on this which was super annoying.
The Heads Are Trickier Than You Think
Okay so the heads need to be proportional but not too big or they look like bobbleheads. I did a basic sphere—magic ring with 6 sc, then increase to 12, then 18, then 24, work even for a few rows, then decrease back down. The issue is getting the facial features right or deciding if you even want facial features because honestly I couldn’t figure out how to embroider decent faces so I just left them blank and it looks more… I dunno, classical? My sister said they looked creepy but whatever.
Attaching the head to the body is where I got really frustrated because no matter how I sewed it, there was this weird gap. I ended up crocheting a little collar or scarf thing around the neck area to hide it. Used some brown yarn I had lying around that might have been Caron Simply Soft but I’m not positive.
Robes and Clothing Details
For Mary’s robe I wanted blue because that’s traditional right? Found this dusty blue color in Red Heart that worked. You basically crochet a rectangle that wraps around the cone body and sew it up the back. I didn’t measure anything properly so I just held it up as I went and stopped when it looked right.
The headpiece for Mary was—actually you could do this a few different ways. I made a simple rectangle and draped it over her head and tacked it down with a few stitches. Some patterns tell you to make an actual fitted hood but that seemed like too much work.
Joseph needs a darker robe. I used this brown that was maybe Vanna’s Choice? It had been in my stash forever. Same basic concept as Mary but I gave him this little rope belt made from a simple chain stitch twisted around.
Baby Jesus Is Tiny And Fiddly
The baby is so small that it’s hard to crochet. I used a smaller hook—probably a size D or E—and just made the tiniest body and head. Literally maybe 2 inches long total. You can wrap him in a white blanket which is just a small rectangle. I didn’t even stuff mine properly because it was so small that the stuffing kept poking out through the stitches.
The manger was easier than I expected. Just crochet a small rectangular basket shape using tan or brown yarn. I did mine in rows of single crochet, making a flat bottom and then working up the sides. To make it look like wood I switched between two shades of brown every couple rows.
Animals Are Optional But Add Character
I made a sheep, a donkey, and tried to make a cow but it looked more like a weird dog so I called it a donkey too and said there were two donkeys. The sheep is probably the easiest—white fluffy yarn (I used some Lion Brand Homespun I think?) in a basic oval body shape with a separate head and little legs.
The legs on all the animals were super annoying because they’re so small and have to be sturdy enough to support the body. I ended up making them shorter and fatter than the pattern I was loosely following suggested. Honestly the pattern I found online was pretty unclear about the leg attachment points anyway.
Donkey Construction
Gray or brown yarn for the body, same cone-ish shape as the people but horizontal instead of vertical. The head is a longer oval shape and the ears are just flat ovals that you fold and sew on. I was watching that baking show with the British people while making these and kept losing count of my stitches.
The Angel And Shepherds
The angel needs wings obviously. I made simple wing shapes by chaining like 10, then doing increases and decreases to make a leaf shape, then made a second one and sewed them both to the back. That Bernat Softee Baby white yarn worked good for this because it’s got a slight sheen to it.
For the halo I used gold embroidery floss and just made a circle of chain stitches, stiffened it with some watered-down glue, and attached it to the back of the head. It kept falling off though which was one of those things that really annoyed me about this whole project—nothing stayed attached properly and I was constantly re-sewing things.
Shepherds are basically the same as Joseph but you can give them different colored robes and maybe a staff. The staff is just a tight chain stitch or you could use a toothpick wrapped in brown yarn which is what I ended up doing because it was faster.
The Three Wise Men
These guys need fancier robes. I used some sparkly yarn I had from another project—might have been Red Heart Shimmer—for accents. Make the basic body shape but add different colored trim or stripes to make them look more regal or whatever.
The gifts are tiny little boxes or pots. Just make small cylinders with lids. I made them in gold, red, and green because that’s what yarn I had. One of them looks more like a flowerpot than a fancy gift container but from a distance you can’t really tell.
Crowns were the hardest part honestly. I tried making little crocheted crowns but they looked terrible so I ended up cutting shapes from felt and gluing them which felt like cheating but who cares.
Assembly And Display Problems
Getting all these pieces to stand up together in a stable way is harder than making them. I ended up sewing some of the figures to a piece of felt board so they wouldn’t tip over. The animals especially kept falling.
You need way more pieces than you think if you want it to look full. I made probably 12 or 13 figures total and it still looked kinda sparse.
