How to Make a Fabric Animal Wall Sculpture

Do you love rustic decor with a touch of whimsy or pieces you can easily customize to match your own style? Well, today I’m finally sharing how I made the plaid fabric animal wall sculpture that you may have seen hung up in my office, or in our Christmas home tour last year.

The truth is, I made this little guy in the wee hours of the night and the only photos I took during the “process” were on my iPad, and the only light in the room was from our Christmas tree. Ha.

However, this is such a simple {and affordable} project that I’m hoping my lack of photos won’t deter you from giving it a try.

How to Make a Fabric Animal Wall Sculpture

Paper Mache Deer Head {I used a 40% off coupon}

Buffalo Plaid/Gingham Fabric 

Mod Podge

Scissors

Foam Brush

Nail or Hanging Strips

** I purchased my black and white buffalo plaid fabric from JoAnn’s when it was on sale, but don’t see it on their website. You may want to check in the store or click the link above {Online Fabric Store} for an alternative option.

When it comes to the holidays I’m all about warm and cozy, cabin-inspired decor and I especially love me some plaid.  So naturally, I became ecstatic when browsing JoAnn’s and realizing that their plaid flannel fabric was 40% off.

I picked up a few variations of plaid fabric to use on projects, including a plaid can vase, some plaid Christmas stockings, and some pillows which you can see below.

The black and white buffalo check fabric was supposed to be used as garland on our Christmas tree. Sadly, I only picked up one yard of fabric, something I was kicking myself for later on. I generally buy fabric in at least 2-3 yards just because…well ya never know. This was not one of those instances. Boooooo.

Once I realized I was going to need more fabric, none of the JoAnn’s near me had any of the fabric in stock, nor did any other fabric shops. I turned to the internet and ordered an additional 4 yards from JoAnn’s website. Whew!

Except for the day it was supposed to arrive I received an email… and it said they had run out of this specific fabric and didn’t know when they would receive any more. Booooooooo. I called their customer service about it, especially because a little heads up would have been nice. They apologized for the inconvenience but it took their computers a little extra time to get updated on the inventory and there wasn’t anything they could do. Oh well, it was time to move on and think of a new plan.

In the end, I ordered this white and black buffalo check ribbon from Amazon for our Christmas tree garland and decided to use the one yard of fabric for something else. I then remembered a paper mache deer head I had picked up from Hobby Lobby a few months prior. I knew I wanted to do something fun with it but hadn’t figured it out until that very moment.

You see my friends, there is a silver lining. If I would have had enough fabric, this adorable plaid deer head probably never would have happened.

To create my rustic, plaid fabric deer I basically worked in sections. I would paint a small section of the paper mache deer with Mod Podge, cut a strip of fabric, and then press it on top of the glue. I used wider strips of fabric for the neck and front of the face and smaller strips for areas like the ears and antlers.

A few pieces were layered on top of one another but I liked how it all came together. At one point I cut several strips at once to make it go even quicker.

You should probably put some newspaper down on your table to avoid cleaning up Mod Podge later on. What can I say.. I’m a risk-taker 🙂

To hang the fabric animal wall sculpture up on the wall I created a nail hole into the back and then had to guide it onto the nail in the wall. It worked for me and stayed in place, but you may be better off just using some picture hanging hardware or command hanging strips.

I then gently placed a scarf around his neck for a little added character. It’s perfectly imperfect and took less than 30 minutes. I <3 him.

Here is what my fabric animal wall sculpture looked like displayed during Christmas last year:

After the holidays he was moved into my craft room/home office but he may make another appearance in the living room once Christmas rolls back around.

I recently saw that Target was selling a plaid tartan felt deer head and have to admit that it’s a great deal for the price, which is under $30! They didn’t have this in stock last year otherwise I’m certain I would have snagged him up. It looks like they may be out of stock for the time being, and I wonder if they will get more in stock?

Update: Here’s a photo from our Christmas home decor in 2015:

So what do you think? Do you have, or do you plan to add a fabric animal wall sculpture to your home?