For all the people out there who like to make handmade Christmas presents for friends and family, it's about time to get started with fresh ideas. Here's a list of possible Christmas presents to make for your loved ones, sorted by category.
~ Practical ~
Everyone loves a nice and practical handmade gift. These can be used for a longer period of time and might make life a little bit easier. So here's what I have.
1. Cable holders
Getting organized is hard. Especially if you have lots of cables that tangle up all the time. No matter how hard you try, they always seem to unravel and it'll end up being a huge mess, right? Stop right there, I got you covered. Here's a short tutorial on how to make a cable holder.
First, cut a rectangle that you can wrap around your cable and overlap the ends. Depending on what fabric you use, cut a second rectangle like this if your fabric frays.
Round off the edges and sew the two pieces together good side to good side. Leave a gap for turning.
Turn it right side out and close the gap.
Make a top stitch along the corner so that it'll lay flat.
Cut a piece of hook and loop band and sew the hook side on one end and the loop side to the other side of the other end. And you're done.
2. Bedside caddies
Speaking of getting organized, a bed side caddy is a gread idea too. You can find tons of different layouts for different purposes on the internet.
The essential steps are simple:
You'll need a big rectangle that is long enough to put it under your matress and stick out on the side of your bed as long and wide as you want your caddy to be. Be sure not to make it too short because depending on the weight of what you put inside, it might slip away from under your matress.
When you're happy with the size, think about a layout. What do you want to put inside? Will you need a place for your laptop, tablet, phone, remote control? A slot for the book you're currently reading? Somewhere to put your medicine? Draft your design onto a piece of paper and add a few more pockets than you think you'll need (I mean, you'll never know whether you forgot about a place for that cable until you're done).
Then, sew on the pockets. You can layer them on top of each other. I like to make a big pocket that is the size of the part that sticks out beside the bed and put smaller pockets on it. You can make as many layers as you want to, just make sure you don't sew any pockets shut. Make the fabric pieces for the pockets wider than you want your pockets to be, sew on the sides first (as wide as you wanted them to be) and then make a fold on each side so that the bottom edge lines up with the width you desired. Then sew the bottom on. That way, you can put more items into your caddy.
3. Oven mittens
Oven mitts are quite a nice gift for everyone who likes baking. One can never have enough of those anyway since they somehow disappear every once in a while, only to reappear as soon as you got new ones.
To make them, you'll need cotton fabric and quite a bit of batting - you don't want your loved ones to burn their fingers, do you?
First, make your pattern. To do that, lay your hand onto a piece of paper and trace around it, leaving quite some space all around.
Cut eight pieces of cotton from your pattern, four left hands and four right hands. Make sure to add a bit of seam allowance.
Lay a left and a right hand good sides together and sew along the edges, leaving the arm hole open. Repeat three more times. And turn them right sides out.
Stuff the hands in a flat way, don't overfill them. Make sure though that you have some batting in the fingertips and the thumb too.
Sew a pattern of top stitches over the stuffed hands to secure the batting in place (the usual pattern is just sewing stripes one way and then orthogonal ones, but you can be more creative here and sew swirls or something like that. Just make sure the ends of your thread don't show).
Decide which sides you want to be visible (they should look quite similar right now) and put two hands on top of each other visible sides facing each other and sew around the corner again, leaving the arm hole open. Repeat.
Turn your mittens right side out and sew a topstitch around the arm hole. Don't sew the hole closed!
Trim the arm edge. Then take a wide ribbon, press it along the middle (so that it is half the width) and lay it around the arm edge. Sew it on using a top stitch. And that's it!
4. Phone sleeves
Nowadays, everyone is constantly carrying around their phones. It's important to store them safely, since no one wants their screens to be scratched by a key in their bag or something like that, right? That's what makes phone sleeves great gifts.
Well, the how to is self explanatory. There are quite a bunch of ideas to consider though. You could use thick socks for example for quite quick phone sleeves. You could use thick felt and make cute animal faces. You could add a pocket for money or headphones. You could even make kind of a wallet with an integrated phone case. The only important thing about this are the measurements. You have to know which phone you're making this for.
~ For the Little Ones ~
If you happen to have any children around, there are tons of great gift ideas that would really make them happy. Oftentimes, it doesn't even have to take too much time to make cute gifts for children. Depending on how old they are, you can make different types of presents for them.
1. Toy band aids
Most kids love playing doctor. Mostly it's either dolls or stuffed animals that are sick or suffer from injuries. For the latter, you can make "self adhesive" toy band aids from scrap fabric!
Visit my DeviantArt post for a detailed description of how to make the band aids and the box
here.
2. Stuffed animals
Every child loves stuffed animals to cuddle with. If they're handmade, even better.
There are tons of patterns out there to make stuffed animals, no matter what skill level you're at. You can make sock puppets or fancy teddy bears. If you're looking for inspiration, you can go through
my DeviantArt gallery. I usually include where I found the patterns or tutorials.
3. Cute heating pad pals
Not only for children I'd say. Many adults would probably also like a homemade heating pad pal. You can turn many stuffed animal patterns into heating pads actually, but you can also make basic heating pads with faces that might double as decoration.
To make a heating pad pal, all you need to do is sewing a stuffed animal from microwave safe fabric (I recommend putting a piece of the fabric, thread and buttons/safety eyes/... into the microwave for a few minutes together with a glass of water if you're not sure it's microwave safe) and filling it with rice. You can add a bit of lavender for a nice smell, too.
4. A play mat
So I've seen these genius play mats on the internet that double as bags to store toys. The children can play on them and when playtime is over, you close the mat and all the toys are kept inside. Tidying up after playing with LEGOs has never been that easy!
Here are the basic steps for making a play mat:
First of all, you need a big circle of somewhat soft but durable fabric. I'd say fleece should do, but cotton fabrics will probably be fine as well. If you want to, you can use two different fabrics, one for the side to sit on and another to face the floor (might be a good idea if you don't have a carpet anyway, so that the mat won't slip away).
Create a tube around the corner of the circle of fabric (e.g. by sewing the two circles together good side to good side, turning it right side out and top stitching an inch or so away from the edge) and thread a ribbon or twine through it.
And that's basically it. You just have to make sure that the ends of the ribbon/twine stick out of the tube. You can use two eyelets for the ends to go through (space them about an inch or two apart from each other on the bottom side of the mat) and make knots so that the ribbon or twine won't slip into the tube.
Of course you can make the mat a lot more detailed and add cute applications. You could also make it from a quilt to add another touch of details. Kids (and most of all parents!) will love this gift.
5. A sewing kit
If you're looking for a present for a creative person (doesn't have to be a child actually), why not put together a sewing kit for them to make a plushie or pillow or headband, etc. ? This one would make a good advent calendar as well if you have one not too big step for them to make every day.
All you have to do is gathering the right fabric(s) for the project, add all the needed eyes, noses, joints and stuffing, thread and a needle (if you're making this for a child make sure they know how to use it without hurting themselves) along with a tutorial.
I'd recommend already tracing the pattern pieces and cutting them out with a seam allowance, just to make sure you have enough fabric. Then you can put all the pieces into a nice box or bag and add a pretty tag saying "Sewing Kit" or something like that.
If you're making this as an advent calendar, you can for example put two matching pieces for a foot into one bag, along with the decription how and where to sew it together, then for the next day you can put the stuffing for the foot in, ... Just make sure not to make the steps too uneven. It might be frustrating if they're supposed to sew the whole body together as well as assembling all the parts on one day while they only had to sew one gap closed the other day.
The advent calendar should be matched to whether or not the recipient will use a sewing machine. Larger parts such as the body of a teddy bear will take a few days to complete if sewn by hand while it might be okay to let them make it in one day if they use a sewing machine. That also means that you could let a person with a sewing machine make two different plushies in one calendar.
If you know that the person you're giving the calendar to doesn't have a lot of time, you could put some candy into every other day's bag so that they always have two days to complete each step.
6. Travel Tic Tac Toe
It's genius, trust me.
All you have to do is make a bag, sew a tic tac toe cross on one side and put ten buttons inside the bag, five of one color and five of another. You could make a morris board on the other side of the bag and instead of five buttons per color, you'll put nine buttons for each color into the bag.
7. Toy food
Kids love playing with toy food. You can make lots of different food items from felt. If you put them into empty (and clean) boxes of real food, the kids will love their new toy food even more.
Got an empty package of farfalle? Refill it with felt farfalle. Cut rectangles of yellow (or orange, green, ...) felt, using zig-zag scissors for the left and right edge and normal scissors for the top and bottom edge. Gather the felt in the middle and sew little bows. Repeat a hundred times.
Got an empty sushi container? Clean it out and cut lots of white strips of felt for rice. Cut green and orange and other colors of strips too. All the stripes should be about the same length (about an inch long). Then, cut a long black rectangle that is about as wide as the strips and roll up the strips inside to look like sushi. You can make little onigiri too. Take two rounded triangles of white and a rectangle of black felt for that and sew the whites together, stuff them and sew on the black strip on one side.
~ Clothing ~
1. Baby shoes
Come on, baby shoes are adorable! You could also make cute slippers for older kids. Experimenting with different designs is quite fun. Why not make ducks, bears, foxes or cats? How about robots? Boats? Cars? Unicorns?
The basic form of the shoes can be the same for most of the ideas. You'll basically need a bottom part (I recommend putting on some non-slip dots or paws or anything like that), a toe part and a strip to go around the heels. First you sew the toe part to the bottom. Then you sew on the strip from one side around the heel to the other, joining it with the toe part at the sides.
Then you can start decorating the shoes the way you want. You can add lining as well by making a pair of shoes from the lining fabric (inside out) and sewing it to the inside of the shoes.
2. Hats and scarves
The easiest and fastest handmade gifts ever. At least if you make them from fabric instead of knitting or crocheting them. And everyone likes a nice warm scarf in winter, right?
To make a hat with cat ears, take two about square rectangles of fabric (make sure the bottom edge fits around half the head of the person you're making this for) and sew along three of the edges, leaving the bottom open. Hem the bottom. Turn it right side out, top stitch "off" the triangles that'll be the ears. If you want to, you can add a face or pink insides of the ears. To make it look more professional, you can cut a long rectangle, fold it in half (half width, whole length) and sew it along the bottom edge instead of just hemming it.
For an easy scarf, take a long piece of non-fraying fabric and cut slits to both ends for detail.
You can also sew two pieces of fabric together and turn it right side out.
You could round off the edges too and sew a short rectangle with one rounded off side on top of the scarf ends to put your hands into. If you add a paw print on the bottom of those hand parts, the scarf would go along with the cat hat pretty well.
3. Ponchos
Another quick craft that would probably do as a last minute gift idea. It's one of those presents that can either be really detailed or simple.
To make a basic poncho, take some soft fabric and decide whether you want to make a square or a circular poncho. If you decide for the square version, you again have different options; you can round off the edges or you leave them "sharp". You could decide to round off two opposite corners as well and leave the other two as they are.
Cut a hole in the middle of the circle or square. If you have a non fraying fabric, that's basically it. If not, cut a second circle/square of the same size for the inside of the poncho and sew them together. You could use some furry fabric for the inside for extra cuddly-ness.
When you're done with the basic shape, you can decorate the poncho. Add pockets in the front, add a hood to the back, sew pompom ribbon all around the edge(s), add pompoms to the ends of some band that you thread through the edge of the hood, sew a short line on each side to define the arm holes better, ... You can be really creative here.
4. Waistcoats
Waistcoats are awesome. There are so many different ways to make them. You could make them from some fuzzy fabric, faux fur, faux leather, fleece, denim, ... And they'll always have a certain flair.
To make a waistcoat, you'll basically need three rectangles of fabric; a wide one for the back and two slimmer ones for the front.
Line the rectangles up at the top and cut a v-neck shape. Join the top edge of the front pieces and the back. If your fabric isn't non-fraying, sew each of the three pieces together with a mirror piece first and turn them right side out.
Next, leave a gap between the top edge and the sides for the arms and sew the sides together. Turn it right side out.
To close the waistcoat, you can add two pieces of ribbon to make a bow in the front or you could sew a few buttons on and make loops on the other side. Just be creative.
If you want to, you can add pockets in the front or sew/press on badges.
~ Miscellaneous ~
1. Pillows
Pillows are great gifts for people you don't know that well or who already have everything. They can be used to decorate the sofa or bed to create a cozy atmosphere. Depending on the person's interests, you can make the most amazing pillows they will definitely love.
Start by thinking about that person's interests or hobbies. Do they like playing the guitar? Then you could make a pillow shaped like a guitar. Are they more into horses? Great, how about making a pillow shaped like a horseshoe? Do they love cookies as much as I do? Then a cookie pillow could be just the right present for them.
Once you've decided on a design, cut two pieces of fabric in the right shape and sew them together, leaving one gap open to turn it right side out. Turn it, stuff it and your basic pillow is ready.
Now add fun details. Sew on pieces of fleece or felt for the details of a guitar, holes in the horseshoe or chocolate chips in the cookie. You can sew on yarn as strings for the guitar. As with everything handmade, get creative with decoration.
To make sewing on the details easier, you can sew them on before you sew the front and back of the pillow together. I wouldn't recommend this for people who aren't as experienced in sewing though because (depending on the design) it might be important to line up the pieces very neatly.
2. Wrist rests
Sitting in front of the computer for hours can cause your wrist to hurt, mostly if you've held onto the mouse for too long. If you know somebody who spends hours on their desk, they might thank you for a nice wrist rest.
I decided to make my wrist rest from denim and in the shape of a bone. You just have to sew the two pieces together and stuff it. You could use softer fabric and stuff it with rice or plastic beans, leaving some air so that the rice/beans can shift around for a more ergonomic design.
3. Mouse pads
Did you know you could totally make a mousepad for your laptop? You can store the mouse inside of it.
Cut a circle from fleece or another suitable fabric. Put non-slip dots on one side of the circle. Find a zipper that goes half way around your circle. Open the zipper all the way, pin it to the edge of the right side of the circle (i.e. the side without the dots) facing inward (so the side of the zipper that isn't supposed to be visible is on the edge while the teeth are directed to the centre of the circle). Sew the zipper on.
Now for the tricky part: fold the edge over so that the zipper now is on the bottom of the circle, pin it and top stitch all around the corner. And you're done. You should press the edge carefully before using it so that it'll lay more flat.
To store your mouse, you only have to put it onto the dotted side of the pad and close the zipper around it.
