Need a last minute gift for someone on your list who is hard to shop for? Here is a round-up of my top five favorite last minute sewing gifts for the holidays you can actually make in a weekend.
1. Simple Quilts or Patchwork Blankets
If you have a stash of fabric scraps in squares or strips you are ready to go for a quick stash busting simple quilt. Coins (little rectangles), squares or strips all make delightful quilts and sew up really quickly. Make any size you need with very little math by sewing your first row to the desired width and using that as a guide to build the additional rows. With every piece an equal dimension, you will be able to piece quickly with no tricky layout configurations and very little block trimming to slow you down. I have written a complete guide to how I make my popular Patchwork Minky Quilts in the past to guide you through. Part one covers selecting of fabrics, while part two gives complete assembly instructions. Read about the process here: Making of a Patchwork Minky Blanket. If you have somewhat smaller pieces of fabric to use up, try this Coin Quilt pattern from Emily Dennis of Quilty Love.
2. Strip Quilt or Blanket
Even quicker than the pieced tops above, is the strip quilt. Basically to make this quilt or blanket you take varying heights of fabric by the WOF (full width of fabric) and sew then together until you have the desired length of your blanket. Simply trim off the bias edges and you are good to sew with basically no measuring, math or trimming. If you had smaller strips you could also make a really sweet doll or stuffed animal blanket in no time. Use coordinating cuts of fabric and make the two to match and really wow that special little boy or girl with a great personal gift.
3. Lined Zipper Pouch
Have a few pieces of fabric, zippers and a zipper foot attachment for your sewing machine? Cool, you’re ready to go to make a lined zipper pouch. Dana from Made Everyday guides you through the zipper pouch process. Video here. I’ve made these in the past in patchwork form and used up little bits of fabric, but for times sake, fun whole cloth pieces of fabric work great. You can make a bunch of these in one afternoon and knock out all of your teacher and office mate gifts and they’re prefect for any gender.
4. Scrappy Christmas Star Ornaments
I love any project that is fast, cute and busts some scraps! The Handmade Quilted Christmas Ornaments from Swoodson Says do all of the aforementioned. This little project can be achieved with minimal supplies and the smallest of fabric scraps. I could even see adapting this with paper and glue of you don’t want to sew, for some wonderful little paper ornaments or gift tags. I did a similar project in 2017 in non- Christmas colors which looks quite charming too if you’re just star lover like me.
5. Tote Bags
Two fat quarters of fabric, some strips of fabric and a half hour or so will get you a finished tote bag great for gifting. Make the process even easier on yourself and grab a tote bag panel from the closest fabric shop or online. Most project panels, as they are called, include all of the pieces and instructions printed right on one cut of fabric. I love this “Bee Kind” panel from Hawthorne Supply. Tote bags are universally useful as we all try to be more earth friendly and ditch the one use plastics. In addition to full panels, I have made several from strip pieced fabrics. Therefore, they are a great gift for so many people on your list. Fill the tote with additional gift items for a great alternative to throwaway packaging this holiday season.
Not into sewing for friends and family this holiday season, but still want to give some unique handmade goodies? I’ve got you covered! Shop the links below or head over to the La Rue de Fleurs shop for all of my in-stock and ready to ship versions of the gifts mentioned above.
Have a wonderful holiday season. Stay creative friends, xoxo Janice
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