Baby Jesus in a nutshell - tutorial

I wanted to make a tutorial on how to make a Baby Jesus in a nutshell like this. They are traditional in Hungary. You can make a handful in an hour, so perhaps it is worth sitting down tonight, in the middle of the hectic preparation, and make some with the kids.

Unfortunately I haven't made photos when I made these, and have no opportunity to take any right now (I am sitting on a ferry to Finland), but I thought if someone wants to make some, it is so easy, perhaps I can write down the tutorial without the pictures, and it might still work.

You will need:

halved walnutshells
wooden beads (mine were about 1 cm in diameter)
white fabric scrap for the duvet: a circle about 7 cm in diameter)
a little bit of fiberfill or other stuffing
a piece of white lace for the head (I had some small pieces of crocheted lace, but if you have none, just a small piece of white fabric would do)
golden cord, about 20 cm
small golden charm (I used a star)
glue


To open the walnut, push a knife in the wider end, wiggle carefully, and most of the times it opens easily. Take out all the nut. I have pictures of this step.

Take the golden cord, fold it in half, tie a knot and glue it in the narrower end of the nutshell.

Wrap the lace piece around the wooden bead, as if it was a head scarf, and sew or glue in place. I just sewed through the hole in the bead a few times.
Glue the head on the top of the golden cord.

Sew running stitches around the white circle, about half a cm from the edge. Pull the ends, and put a little stuffing in it, then tie the ends together.
Glue it into the remaining empty space in the nutshell, push it down so that it fills it all.

Glue a star in the middle.

Actually, next time I will make them, I will embroider something in the middle of the fabric circles before doing the running stitch, it might look even better than the glued star - but I came up with the idea too late.


Finally, draw a face. I only drew sleeping eyes but you can add more details if you want.

If something is not clear, go ahead and ask.


I made about 20 for the Christmas market and they were very popular. :)