Six Ideas For Fast Handmade Gifts - Let the Holiday Countdown Begin

Can you believe there are only 43 days until Christmas? And if you celebrate Hanukkah, well that starts in a mere 23 days. Yikes! I am the world's worst at waiting until about this time to decide that it is time to get started on all those handmade gifts. I have to admit I sort of thrive on the chaos of a busy making season.

If you are in need of some gift making suggestions, here are a few ideas and tutorials.

ORNAMENTS

Ornaments are often a fast gift when you want to make something for a group, like teachers or coworkers. And why stop at bells? It is so easy to search out other shapes like trees, stockings, or stars that would also be fast and easy strip pieced ornaments.

What I love most about these is that if you make a plain back for them, you can add a personalized message. Learn more about making these strip pieced bell ornaments here.

DOOR HANGERS

You can upsize any ornament to make it a door hanger. Again, a plain back leaves room for you to further personalize an already special gift. Here is a tutorial for making this bell door hanger.

MUG RUGS

I love mug rugs. Bigger than a coaster. Smaller than a quilt. You can use orphan quilt blocks or bust into your scraps. It's hard to go wrong with a mug rug. I usually gift these along with a few cookies or a small snack. They can be made with a holiday theme or in fabrics that can be used year round. Check out this tutorial for a dresden mug rug.

If you like to quilt more than piece, this initial mug rug may be more your style. Here is a tutorial for making an initial mug rug.

BANNERS AND BUNTINGS

Banners and buntings are great to add some decorative flair to any room. They are easy to enhance with extras and can be themed or not. Here is a link to how this one was made.

COASTERS

I like to think of coasters as tiny quilts. There are a million ways to make coasters, and they are another great way to use up orphan blocks and scraps. While this picture has a Valentine's theme, they can be made in any fabric. These are made from leftover charm squares. Learn how to make these here.


SMALL QUILTS

Now, before you roll your eyes over how not quick a quilt is, keep in mind it doesn't have to be a big quilt. It could be a very small quilt, so small that it becomes a table topper, or mini quilt, or wall hanging. For example, in the quilt above, if I just made three columns of blocks, and shortened it a bit, wouldn't that make a cool table runner?

When you are looking for ideas, try to dissect the bigger projects a bit to see if something small, fast, and beautiful can be made from them. Go here to see how this quilt was made.

This blue plus quilt was also a fast one to make. Learn about it here.

This list is only a small sampling of fast handmade projects to get you started. Do some quick searching and you will find thousands of ideas for handmade gifts. What fast handmade projects have you made?

A Fall Skirt

This past weekend, I made a quick stop by my local quilt shop. In addition to a few quilty purchases, I also picked up this pretty batik from the sale shelves. My wardrobe needs a few additions for fall, and at $7 a yard, it was also a great bargain.

Sassy Skirts by Cindy Taylor Oates is my go to book for skirt making. There are lots of variations in the book but I confess that I have only made the simple A-line, elastic waist version. That is mostly because I tend to wear busy print skirts with solid tops so most extras in the sewing pattern end up getting lost in the busy print of the fabric.

There is only one pattern piece which is used to cut the front and the back of the skirt. I always make french seams on the sides to prevent ugly fraying over time as the skirt is washed and worn. To make a french seam, sew the wrong sides together first using a 1/4" seam. Press the seam allowance to one side. Then turn the skirt so that right sides are together and stitch a 3/8" seam. The 1/4" seam is caught inside the 3/8" seam so no raw edges are visible.

Then press under a 1/4" on the top of the skirt, and press again 1/8" wider than the elastic you will use in the waist band. The pattern calls for 1/2" elastic but I like mine wider so I used 1 1/4" wide elastic and pressed under 1 3/8" to form the waist band. Stitch it down near the edge leaving an opening to insert the elastic. Once the elastic is in, finish stitching down the waist band. I love how fast this goes together and how neat and finished it looks.

In the same way the waist band was pressed under, turn under and press for the hem. 1/4" first, then whatever width you need to make the skirt the right length for you. If this is more than a couple of inches, it would be better to cut off some of the length and then turn under the hem. I like to top stitch the hem and added three rows for this skirt.

This skirt is a little longer than what I usually make but is a good length for fall and also looks pretty snazzy with my boots. It's almost boot season! From start to finish, this skirt took a little more than an hour to make. What a fun way to spend a sewing evening.