Tuesday 6 December 2011

DIY Stocking Stuffers

Looking for some quick and easy gifts to sew as stocking stuffers or small gifts for friends & family this Christmas?

Here are a few tutorials from my blog archive which might fit the bill...


Butterfly brooches decorated with buttons. You could make these in your friends' favourite colours, or use lots of shades of brown felt to make a moth instead of a butterfly. They'd also look super cute sewn onto a hair clip or an elasticated headband, and you could decorate the butterflies with sparkly sequins, beads or stitch a design with embroidery thread onto the wings instead of adding buttons.



A cute owl brooch. These are really quick and easy to sew, and everyone loves owls, right? Like the butterflies, this owl would also make a sweet hair clip or you could add a little loop of ribbon to make a sweet woodland-themed Christmas ornament.



Easy felt flower hair clips. These are a great beginner sewing project, and perfect if you need to whip up a little gift in a hurry! I used kirby grips / hair pins but you could also sew the flowers onto snap clips... and they'd look great with some sparkly seed beads sewn in the centre. You can make them look extra fancy by cutting a couple of slits in pieces of scrap card to make little display cards for the flowers (like the ones you get at the jewellery store).



A felt flower brooch. As with the butterflies, you could sew your flower onto an elasticated headband instead of adding a brooch clasp (great for teen girls!). This tutorial includes templates for sewing the brooch pictured, but is also a helpful beginners guide to designing and making your own brooches so you can get creative and make lots of different felt flowers if you want!



Teabag shaped lavender sachets. If you've got any dried lavender harvested from your garden this year, or can get hold of some from your local craft store these lavender sachets are a very fun gift for a tea lover. Lavender is a great natural moth deterrent, so lavender sachets make fab gifts for friends with pretty woollens in their wardrobes!



More lavender sachets... the little house sachets would also make sweet door hanger decorations, and the square sachets could become pincushions if you stuffed them with polyester stuffing or felt/fabric scraps instead of lavender.


I backed my little houses with cute house print fabric, but you could use fabric from your stash or felt instead. They'd make very sweet gifts for people celebrating their first Christmas in a new home, and you could personalise them by stitching their initials into the back of the ornament.

The square sachets are very easy to sew and a great way to use up scraps of ribbon or odd buttons leftover from other projects. You could also personalise them by embroidering an initial into the centre of the heart. I made a big batch of these sachets as gifts for friends and neighbours one Christmas, it was a huge amount of fun mixing & matching colours and making each one slightly different.

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Want some more ideas? You can find more projects on my crafty tutorials page.

6 comments:

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

Great ideas - thanks for sharing!

SMILE factory said...

Oh, I love the lavender schets! They look so cute! :)

uvi03 said...

Your stocking stuffers are adorable!!! I love the little houses!

Bella said...

I've been stalking your blog for a while now and just wanted to say that it's wonderful! It has inspired me to get back into hand sewing again and i've started a bunch of ornaments for myself, some inspired by yours!

Shell said...

Love your tutorials .. I made your little owl brooch to cheer up my niece after having an op.

Bugs and Fishes said...

Bella - thanks for commenting! I'm so glad to hear you've been enjoying the blog & I hope your ornament sewing has gone well :)

Shell - yay! I hope your niece liked her owl xx