The Too Late Snowman: sounds like the title to a children's book! This is a snowman I used to make from the little white net bags that vine-ripened tomatoes came in at the grocery store. But then, for some reason, THEY decided to make the bags red, instead of white, and I could no longer use the tomato bags for my little snowmen. I really liked those snowmen, too, because I could recycle those tomato bags and also could make use of "orphaned" socks. Teachers at the school where I taught saved those bags for me, and I always had enough for afterschool craft classes.
But then, one day, I had a brain wave, and wondered if I could make those same snowmen out of those puffy net things that some people use in the shower. I bought one the other day from the Dollar Tree and found that one of those things had enough net to make eight snowmen--they each use about 11 inches of the net.
That makes this project cheap enough to use for class projects; the most expensive ingredient is the stuffing, but it's not THAT expensive if you watch rummage sales, etc. And even if you have to pay full price, a three dollar bag will probably stuff five or six snowmen--maybe more . I usually use socks for the hats, but this one has the end of a sweater sleeve from a shrunk wool sweater. Shrunk sweaters go very cheap at rummage sales--no one is going to WEAR one!!! This little guy has matching scarf and mittens made from the waistband of a thrift store wool skirt. I use such wool fabric to make some of my wool cats (see below), etc. but the waistbands are too small for that purpose, so I was happy to find a use for them.
You might be wondering why this is a Too Late snowman. The reason is that I sat on my hands too long and it got to be mid February before I thought about teaching this project at our little gallery. No one wants to think about snow in March, even though snow sometimes happens here then (7 1/2 inches of it on March 7th one year). Snow in March ticks everyone off. Snow in April is even worse!! So this little guy will have to wait until next winter to model for a class. No problem for me; it will be here before I turn around. The trick will be to remember where he is when I need him next winter.
