I have spent some time over the last few years looking for a nativity set for my children to play with during the holiday season. But the task of finding the perfect nativity that was kid friendly had proven to be difficult as I could not find just exactly what I was looking for. So, when I found Stephanie’s (from Barefoot in the Kitchen) felt nativity advent, I had to make one of my own. It was just the kind of nativity I was looking for.
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I’ll be completely honest, this project took a number of hours to complete. I think part of this was due to having to make up my own pattern as I went along, (but don’t worry, I’ve copied mine for you at the end of this post), but also because there is hand stitching detail on nearly every piece.
Nothing but the stable and trees are actually glued down. My intention in creating such a nativity was that my children would move the pieces around and retell the Christmas story. Each piece is backed in an additional piece of felt, for added durability, and to keep my youngest from picking at the threading.
I used Cotton Embroidery Floss 
One thing I did learn, which is the most important tip I can offer, if to use the higher quality felt found at craft stores like this Assorted Pack Acrylic Craft Felt (affiliate link). You’ll pay about $0.12 more per piece of felt, but the quality is so much better than the felt found at…say Walmart. And yes, I bought the felt in sheets, not from the bolt. For the actual nativity pieces I probably used less than twenty sheets of felt, but of about twelve different colors, so buying from the bolt wouldn’t have been practical.
Finally, I did put a large sheet of felt, from the bolt, on the wall to hold all the pieces. It’s 1/3 of a double yard, cut in half, thus removing the “double”. As recommended by a friend of mine, I used sewing pins to hold it up, which just happen to make the tiniest, unnoticeable holes in the wall.
My kiddies play with our homemade felt nativity set everyday. Sometimes William retells the Christmas story, sometimes I do. Sometimes I use the pieces to illustrate Christmas books, and sometimes the pieces are just used for pretend play, which is ok with me too. What I can tell you definitively is that both my children have heard the Christmas story more this year than any other year previous!
If you think your own kiddies would enjoy one, click Felt Nativity_Stay At Home Educator for the pattern.
Enjoy!
You did a great job! Looks like they are enjoying all your hard work.
Just adorable!!! Love the child smille! Thanks so much for sharing!
Happy week !
Hugs from Portugal,
Ana Love Craft
http://www.lovecraft2012.blogspot.com
Thanks so much for sharing. This is great.
This is so beautiful!! I would love it if you would share at my link party at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2012/12/sharing-saturday-49.html.
And there is also a Nativity Blog Hop that this would be great for at http://craftymomsshare.blogspot.com/2012/12/focus-on-nativity.html. Thank you!!
this is really nice! thanks so much for sharing!
How lovely! Looks like the children really enjoyed it too!
Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!
Maggy
This is beautiful! Thanks for sharing your pattern!
Wonderful! THank you for sharing the template!!
This is a great nativity. I especially love the smile on your little girl’s face in the last photograph. I am stopping by from True Aim. I would really appreciate it if you would consider adding this link to Look What We Did. -Savannah http://lookwhatwedid-homeschool.blogspot.com
I love your project. The felt pieces look amazing and you’ve inspired me to try sewing (gasp) with my own flannel projects. If you do any more flannel projects, I’m in a group called Flannel Friday and we’d love to see some of your stuff. I’m the host this week if you want to check out the post going up later today or join in by commenting on the post that’s already up!
Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
Amazing! Thank you so much for offering the template.
ADORE this! Featuring it tomorrow on the Sunday Showcase!
I LOVE this! So much better than the Christmas trees and stuff that I’ve seen around.
What a beautiful learning tool for retelling the Christmas story! I will be sharing it on the Read.Explore.Learn. Facebook page today!
That is so beautiful. A Nativity scene that the children will treasure. It will probably be one of those things that you save for when they have children. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library! Pinning.
Beautiful nativity! Thanks for sharing your pattern.
Thank you so much for sharing your pattern! I’m making this for my girls but for especially for my 2 yr old who has trouble playing quietly during church services. I’ll be making an activity bag for her to take to church.
My almost four-year-old insisted I make this for her this year. We all love how it turned out! Thanks so much for sharing your patterns.
Does felt just stick to felt? I’m wondering how the pieces that aren’t glued down stick?
Yes, felt sticks to itself.
This post is almost a year old but I found you on pinterest, and started making my own nativity using your pattern. I am absolutely in love with it! Thanks for taking the time to share!!
Found this on Pinterest and am hoping to attempt. Thank you so much for the post and pattern! It’s adorable!
This is SO cool! I want to make one for our grandson. . . . and hope that his parents will get into telling – and re-telling – and remembering! – the story of Jesus’ nativity. . . . . Thank you for this.
My daughter sent me your link and now I am making 2 at the same time! The pattern is great!
This is darling! Thanks for the pattern. How do you attach the backing? You said it hid the stitching, so I’m guessing glue?
Yes. I used hot glue to attach the backing.
Did you also hot glue the trees and stable onto the blue felt? Also, did you glue your pieces before you did the stitching? Thank you!
I did glue down the trees and the stable onto the blue felt, but everything else can be moved around. I tacked the pieced of felt for the people and animals with tiny dots of glue, and then used the stitching to really hold everything down. Finally, I backed each piece with an additional piece of felt to avoid my little one picking at the stitching as well as to give it extra support. I glued them. This was before I bought a sewing machine, so I supposed all of this could also be done with a machine if using the right needle for the felt and maybe a quilting foot.
I may be trying to be too exact but I’m making one of these right now and had a few questions. It’s just SO cute! Do you have a template for the stable, hair including beards, star, sheep feet, donkey blanket and gifts from the wise men? These touches are all so sweet! If not, do you have any tips on scale or thought process to help me include these details? I’m not very good at improvising. Thank you SO much for this!!!
Well, sheesh. I guess my template isn’t super complete, is it? I don’t have a template for the items you mentioned. I just eye-balled and guestimated until I got what I was looking for. For the hair and beards I began with a square and cut a half circle off one end to get a curve. Then, fold it in half to make a very small cut for the mouth. Unfold and snip the square end to make it look like a beard. I did a similar technique for the hair. I started with a square and snipped at one end to make it look like shaggy hair. The top won’t matter since it will be covered up. For the donkey blanket, I began with a square and laid it on the donkey back and then just trimmed it to fit the curve of the donkey back. The gifts are just squares with strips of felt for the ribbon. If I have time this season, I’ll make a template for the items you mentioned. Hopefully this helps, though.
Did you by chance happen to make the template for these items? About to start making this with a few girl friends, and it would be awesome if you had 🙂 No worries if not, just thought I would ask!
Yes, there is a template. It’s at the bottom of the post.
Oh! I actually meant these specific things that weren’t included in that template (star, stable, beards, etc.) that this other girl was asking about.
Oh, no, I don’t have a template for those. The beards in particular you really just have to cut according to your own pieces. I thought that with them being so small, there would be a large margin for error, so I left them out of the template. You can draw out the pieces on a sheet of paper, cut out, and trace onto the felt to make your own. As for the stable, the pieces are basically all straight, so it’s pretty straight forward.
This is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thanks so much! We only have three of our ten still at home and homeschooling, but I’ve got grandkids coming along now who will love these! Guess that’s part of my Christmas gift this year!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve made one for my Godson, with one piece for each day of Advent, until he has the whole story. I had a great time making it, and I know he’s going to love it!
Excited to do this one this week! Thanks Sarah!
Thank you so much for sharing your awesome templates. I’m going to make this set for my grandchildren. Your figures look so real.
I used your great patterns to make a beautiful Nativity for my grandchildren. Thanks for sharing!
This is great! I plan on starting this in January to hopefully complete by next year. 🙂 I had a few questions, first, did you just use regular thread? Some of it looks thicker like on the clothes. Is there a certain type of needle that works best for hand stitching felt? Thank you so much for sharing this for free. I found a couple patterns but they you had to buy them. I also love that you kept the pieces somewhat simple, no complex French knots and such.
The layers are hot glued together. (I didn’t have a sewing machine at the time. If I were to do it again I’d sew all the pieces together). But, the detail stitching on everything was done with embroidery floss. In the post there is an Amazon link to the threads I used. I didn’t use a special needle, just the smallest head the thread would allow, but there may be a needle out there better for felt. I’m sure someone at your fabric store could help out.