Last minute handmade Christmas Gifts

It’s almost Chriiiissttmmaaas! For those of you who perhaps haven’t been as organised as others with Christmas presents this year, we want to help you make sure your loved ones receive a beautiful Christmas this year – even if it is last minute! Below, we’ve given you a list of last minute homemade Christmas present ideas that you can use to guide you or inspire you before the big day…

Fleece Blanket
Although Christmas may feel like winter is well and truly established, the coldest months of the year are yet to bless us with frost, ice and snow! If you want to create a beautifully personalised and handmade Christmas present for someone you know will be wanting a little extra warmth for next year (and years to come!) we suggest making them their very own fleece blanket. You can do this by first finding a material you know they’ll love (try not to make it festive otherwise they won’t be able to use it come January!) such as one of our lovely cotton fabrics and line it with fleece or pad it with another insulator of your choice. For this, you will need a sewing machine and a large space to carry out your project! To jazz your fleece up a little, you can even add tassels to the ends or decorate it with buttons.

Bookmark
This is a lovely personalised Christmas gift that can be given as a stocking filler, alongside another present as a little extra or as something special to someone who perhaps isn’t expecting anything at all. By giving a book lover in your life a bookmark, it will remind them of you with every turning page so it’s important to make their bookmark as perfect and personalised as possible! There are several ways in which you can make a bookmark and a huge range of styles to choose from. The one we’re suggesting has a plastic or wood foundation than you can either craft from something in the recycling (clean mind you!) or buy some fresh before cutting it into the shape you want. Then you need to decide on how you want to decorate it; we recommend covering it in a material of your choice, sewing the edges closely to the base so that it doesn’t move. From here, you can then decorate it however you want – with a tassel or with plaited string/rope to hang over the book, perhaps you want to stitch their initials, name or a quote?

Christmas Cards
Not quite a Christmas present but perfect for those you will be seeing on Christmas Day or over the festive period who haven’t quite made it onto the present list! For these last minute Christmas cards that you need to make quickly but still ensure that they look stunning, use our glitter felt! Our glitter felt has a sticky back that you can stick onto card for a beautifully sparkly and festive background that basically does all the work for you… From here, you can either cut out lettering to attach to the front with a festive message, create a Christmassy image such as a Christmas tree, present or snowman using coloured paper or card or even write/draw something directly onto the glitter felt using paint or sturdy pens!

Cross Stitch Art
Cross stitch art is not easy but incredibly rewarding once complete! To start, you will need a cross stitch kit which will give you the basics to begin. Then, decide what art you want to create! It doesn’t have to be Christmassy and doesn’t necessarily even need to be art – it could be a quote, a name, a date etc. You will need to know your colours and quantity before picking your thread; once you have you can get cross stitching! We recommend having an image that you can copy or even to trace to ensure your proportions are all correct. This is a lovely Christmas present that radiates effort and love – much better than buying a £200 canvas print from Amazon!

Cooking Apron
What’s one of the best things about Christmas? The food of course! What better way to equip the Chef of the house for the big day than with a brand new cooking apron to inspire them to make you the best Christmas dinner ever?! There are so many choices when it comes to designing and making your own cooking apron so we’ll let you run with your creativity on this one design wise; however the actual structure of the apron needs more uniformity! We definitely recommend finding a pattern for your apron as there are multiple different styles and sizes to pick from. The next step is of course choosing your fabric and settling on what you want your apron to be: novelty, personalised, reversible, classy, festive etc… So many things to consider! 

Button Rings
These are incredibly easy to make and are fantastic gift for children (older children who won’t try and eat them of course!). First of all, you will need to buy some ring blanks which are easy to find on Amazon, eBay or Etsy. We recommend getting these in plastic or a metal that won’t tarnish or turn the ring receiver’s finger green! Next is the fun bit… Choosing your button! Head to our selection of buttons and pick ones that you like the best and that will make the best ring decorations. Once arrived, use superglue to attach them and leave to set for 24 hours then voila! You have your beautiful handmade ring.

Christmas Ornaments
Christmas is the only time to buy, give or receive Christmas ornaments so we suggest going crazy and making a bunch of Christmas decorations to give loved ones that they can use in years to come! Homemade Christmas decorations are hugely sentimental and give you the chance to create something that will be used each year. You can make decorations as simple or complex as you like but we personally recommend finding some lovely festive material and then creating several little Christmassy ornaments by cutting out two pieces of material for each decoration and then filling them with padding. Cut a festive shape such as a stocking, a star, a reindeer face (use buttons for eyes or black stitching!), a tree, an angel etc. before filling with padding and sewing the two sides together. Then, make sure you loop a ribbon and sew it to the top so that it can hang on a Christmas tree or wherever else the receiver would like to display it.

We do hope these have given you some good ideas for last minute handmade Christmas gifts and we would like to wish you a huge Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us here at Hot Pink Haberdashery!