Hi everyone! Despite all these years of sewing activity behind me, this is the first time I am interested in sewing and making Christmas decorations. This year, I am going to do scrap busting Christmas decorations. We don’t have a lot of Christmas decorations at home, just enough to decorate the Christmas tree, so I thought this year is the year I find Christmas decoration DIY ideas in order to build this up, simple and quick scrap busting to sew if possible. If you too are looking for some simple DIY ideas for your Christmas decoration, you are in the right place!
Regarding DIYs, I prefer to avoid extravagant or complex projects which require to buy a lot of notions. My idea of DIY is that it should be accessible and help us reuse things we already have as much as possible. First of all because we can save money, and then because we accumulate so many things in our home just in case we need them one day (at least I do). This hypothetical day has come! The following selection of Christmas decoration DIY ideas will help you reuse: fabric scraps from previous sewing projects (even the tiniest), leftover yarns from previous knitting projects, pieces of cardboard boxes (who never get parcels delivered at home these days?), etc. Basically, if you are a sewist and/or knitter for the rest of the year, Christmas is a fantastic opportunity to reuse your fabric scraps and leftover yarns. Nothing goes to waste.
An advent calendar
First of all, I would like to create a wall hanging advent calendar. This is a nice Christmas piece to occupy space and put surprises of different sizes in it.
Here is my inspiration:
In order to make this I will need:
- a piece of fabric 1m long x 54cm wide for the background (preferably a heavy weight fabric for stability)
- a piece 28cm long x 54cm wide for the top facing
- 24 x fabric pieces of 14cm long x 18cm wide for the day pockets
- 2 thin wooden stick 40cm long (like plant tutors)
- thread
I am not sure yet how I am going to do the numbers and shapes (trees, gifts), but maybe using embroidery? or appliques? or painting them?
In any case I am thinking of filling this wall calendar with little poems, motivational sentences, playmobils or cars for my little girl and some chocolates of course.
Update 01/12/2022. Here is my finished advent calendar. In the end I didn’t put numbers, we’ll just open its content pocket by pocket. However I customised it using 24 buttons which I will never use elsewhere. I absolutely love how it turned out:
Christmas stockings
Recently, my Mum told me she wanted to add nice stockings in her decoration this year, and I thought, “yeah, I’d liked that too”. On the same day, I received a newsletter from Toast (the British lifestyle and fashion brand) with a guide to sew patchwork stockings! This is another great idea to reuse fabrics scraps beautifully, so Christmas patchwork stockings are definitely on my list now.
Here is an inspiration from Pinterest:
The guide says that I need:
- leftover fabrics (pieces from 11cm x 11cm to 11cm x 35cm)
- remnant fabric for the lining 45cm x 120cm
- thin wadding 45cm x 120cm
- thread
Christmas tree ornaments
My Christmas tree is always full of red and gold ornaments that I have bought when I started working and afford a Christmas tree. This year, I would like to diversify and add some personal / warm touches, using fabric scraps like wool plaid or corduroy, and leftover yarn from previous knitting projects.
Trees
I saw these beautiful wool plaid trees on Pinterest and they look extremely simple to make. Plus I have a lot of wool plaid samples which I can use (I don’t remember where I got these).
What I need for these cute trees:
- plaid fabric scraps big enough to cut triangles of approx 10cm (x2 per tree)
- cinnamon sticks for the trunk (I happen to have that in my pantry, and we are actually past the best before date so that’s a goodie!)
- jute twine (15cm per piece)
- thread
- tiny scraps of fabric/thread for the filling
These are the ones I made:
These stars and shapes are similarly made, but with embroidery on top. I might pass on these, because they would take longer to make.
Yarn stars
I also wanted to make these stars made of yarns. Again they are simple to make.
What you need for the yarn stars:
- pieces of cardboard boxes to draw and cut star shapes (it’s time to use these Amazon boxes that you keep just in case! I do keep them, don’t you?)
- yarn from previous projects that you won’t reuse otherwise
- jute twine (15cm per piece)
- double faced tape to make sure the yarn sticks to the points of the star
Here are my little stars in the making:
Pompom garland and bunting
I like when Christmas decorations are everywhere and not only in the Christmas tree, and this from a very young age. When I was 7 years old, after we made the Christmas tree, I went back to my bedroom and started to cry because I thought my bedroom was so sad and empty in comparison to the living room, full of beautiful decorations.
Garlands are a good way to occupy space without being in the way, and they are easy to install. This year I would like to put some on in the stairs, on the shelves, etc.
Therefore I will try to make bunting and a pompom garland following these ideas.
Christmas bunting
I saw this great DIY for Christmas tree bunting from Sew Dainty and I happen to have a lot of green fabric scraps so I will give it a go:
Here is the list of things I need for this project:
- paper to make the tree pattern
- fabric scraps for the trees (18cm long at least)
- thin wadding to make the trees a bit puffy (I think I will use thread/trimmings waste instead because I don’t have thin wadding)
- thread
- bias tape or cotton twill tape or jute twine to put all the trees together
Pompom garland
Making pompoms is super easy, I know how to make these since I am 5! Pompom DIYs are all over the internet.
What I will reuse to make a pompom garland:
- cardboard to make the pompom
- leftover yarn from previous projects
- jute twine to put them all together
Christmas tree cushions
Finally, if I have some time left and big enough fabric scraps left after all the above, I would love to sew these small Christmas tree cushions:
What I need for these beautiful pine tree cushions:
- paper or cardboard to draw the tree pattern
- fabric scraps big enough to cut the tree shape
- filling (again I will use the tiniest scraps I have)
- thread
I hope this blog post gave you some inspiration to sew simple scrap busting Christmas decorations for your home. Which one is your favourite DIY idea?
