In my colorful world of fabric & thread, paper & scissors, and flour & sugar, I begin dreaming of creating homemade and personalized gifts for Christmas long before the leaves begin to turn. While I do possess a few creative bones in my body, you don’t have to be “crafty” to succeed in making homemade gifts. All you need is a small dose of imagination and a willingness to try and create something nice for the special people on your Christmas list. While I know Pintrest has a LARGE amount of projects to choose from, I thought I would share a list of my top favorite homemade or personalized gifts:
No-Sew Scarf
As fleece is a material that does not fray, there is no hemming required!
Materials needed: 63” x 11” piece of fleece for an adult sized scarf, 50” x 9” of fleece for a child sized scarf and one pair of sharp scissors.
Directions: At either end of your piece of fleece, cut roughly 1” x 5” slits all along the edge. This makes it looks like there are tassels. Ta-da, you are finished! If you feel like making a scarf and use your sewing skills, click here for a twirly scarf idea.
Embroidered Flour Sack Towel
If you want to try out an easy sewing project, check out this article featured during Mother’s Day about doing some embroidery on a flour sack towel. It would be a snap to create a lovely Christmas or winter themed design.
Fleece hat
This fall I stumbled across this fantastic pattern to make a simple fleece hat. While it does specify using a ribbon, you can certainly omit this step and still have a really cute hat. But if you have a girly girl who loves ribbons, it is perfect! The pattern does require the use of a sewing machine, but the directions are well documented, there are excellent photos and 
even a YouTube video to help you through all of the steps! So if you are looking for an inexpensive and homemade gift to make for multiple nieces, nephews, children, grandchildren or friends, this is a great one. I purchased ½ yard of fleece and made 3 adult sized hats and 1 ear band out of it…all at the sale price of $5.50.
Ornaments
While making an ornament is really fun, I do tend to purchase these from a store for my children each year. There are thousands of choices in the stores, but I try and narrow down the field by choosing one based on what my child is “into” that year. For example, one year my son could not get enough of his Legos this year, so I purchased him one from Lego, and presenting it to him when we decorated our Christmas tree, as is our family tradition.
Happy Creating!
Springfield Moms contributor Sarah Chandler is a Springfield native, wife to Jeff, and mom to Levi and Anne. She loves to be outdoors during all seasons and enjoys relaxing indoors by creating quilts and scrapbooking.
