Christmas gift ideas: 5 free sewing tutorials

French poetry napkins

This is a quick project that particularly French teachers will enjoy. To complete the project you will need 5 store bought napkins and some stranded cotton for the lettering and drawings.

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Embroidered eye mask

A few fabric scraps are enough to make this quick project. Use fabric with a large print for best results.

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Felt bookmark

This project is very easy and perfect for a teacher or anyone who enjoys reading. I used felt die cuts and stranded cotton in matching colours.

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Folded star pot holder

This potholder is not difficult to make but it is time consuming so if you intend to make one set an afternoon aside to concentrate on it.

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Quilted hot water bottle

Fabric scraps and some batting is all you need to make this quick project.

Embroidered felt flower bookmark

This is one of those projects you can do in a hurry with very pleasant results. It’s not only quick but also inexpensive.

Materials

• Store bought felt die cuts or you can cut your own shapes
• Ribbon
• Embroidery floss

 

Use contrasting highly contrasting colours for best results. If you’re unsure about the color combinations you can use complimentary colour schemes. For instance:

• red and green
• orange and blue
• yellow and purple

I decided to use different colours for each side but you can use the same colour scheme for both.

 

Then using embroidery floss embroider the flowers.

 

Place both flowers wrong side together and place the ribbon in between. Stitch both petals together using an embroidery stitch.

 

Then do the same to the other end of the ribbon. I only used two circles so I just used some cream embroidery floss to stitch both together and secure it to the ribbon.

 

Done!

This bookmark makes a cute handmade Christmas gift.

 

See below my other projects using felt die cuts.

Felt flower corner bookmark

 

Felt flowers embellished with sequins, beads and embroidery

 

Fabric keychain with embroidered felt flower

 

Gathered coin purse pattern

 

This is my third coin purse. I saw this purse on a Russian site and I wanted to try it. I made my first purse using the pattern on the Russian site but then I wanted to change it a bit to make the opening a bit larger so I made a new pattern that you can download below:

• Gathered purse free pattern (pdf)

Materials

• 2 1/5 to 2 3/4 inch round purse frame.
• fabric scraps for exterior, lining and gather
• fusible interfacing

Instructions

Seam allowances are 1/4 inch.

Cut the pieces using the pattern provided. To cut the side panel fold the fabric and place the paper shape aligned with the fabric fold.

Lining

With right side together stitch the lining pieces along the curved side. Leave top open.

Leave a 1 1/5 inch opening on the bottom to turn purse inside out.

Press the fusible interfacing to the wrong side of the exterior pieces.

Now, using a basting stitch on your machine, stitch along both sides of the panel piece.

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Take the thread below and hold, then take the thread on top and pull to produce a gather effect.

Do on both sides and make sure that all gathers align nicely. This will avoid a twisted gather like the one I had in my first purse. The panel piece should measure 8 3/4 inches at the end of the gathering exercise.

Now baste the side panel to one side of the purse starting at the marking on the pattern. If your panel piece measures 8 3/4 both ends will finish at the pattern markings.

Do the same with the other side.

Now stitch from marking to marking on the machine.

Turn inside out.

Now place the exterior purse piece inside the lining piece as per picture below.

Align the top edges and pin.

Stitch all along the top edge.

Now turn the purse inside out through the opening in the lining.

Close the opening using a ladder stitch.

This time I had a purse frame that needed to be glued. It was a bit fiddly and felt I had less control than with the other type of frame I’ve used before.

But it worked!

So this is my third purse.

And maybe the cutest.

The purse I made using the Russian website pattern. It is not as high and the opening is smaller but the differences are minimal. You could use either pattern.