Hamdmade Gifts

A few years ago I made a bunch of the no sew blankets for my family. I waited and bought the fleece on sale. They were a big hit. Easy to make and affordable. I was able to personalize them a bit by picking fabric that was appropriate for each person.

My daughter made some really nice potholders last Christmas... and the neat thing is... she made them out of old clothes! They are much larger than regular potholders.

She used and old sweater for the padding inside, a blue knit for one side (it also had a diamond pattern woven in... she then repeated the diamond pattern in the quilting), and two colors of fine wale corduroy... an olive green, and a gold.. I think she used old corduroy pants for that... they are about 8" square.

For the baby, I used to make cloth bibs out of cute finger towels... you cut a hole about 6" at one end, use t-shirt ribbing (like for the collar of a t-shirt) to sew in the hole... very easy to pull over a baby's neck.

http://www.martawrites.com/2010/09/how-to-make-towel-bib....

I've made coasters, too... very quick and easy, and cute! (for adults)...

Somewhere I have a link for travel items... can't find it in my bookmarks, though.. they were cute! making bright ID tags for bags, makes finding them on a baggage carousel easier. Oh! Here it is!

http://www.studiokatdesigns.com/freepatterns.htm

If you have family members that travel, these could be cute.....

Have fun! Just google handmade gifts... so easy!

ETA... just found a link with LOTS of ideas!

http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/12/the-ultimate-handmade...

I absolutely love these for kids:

http://www.ladybirdln.com/2011/03/hooded-towels-easy-baby...

And for adults, I like to take 4 x 4 tiles from home depot and modpodge either photos or pretty paper on them, then seal them with polyurethane - they make a nice coaster set (make sure to glue either cork or felt on the bottom to prevent scratching tabletops).

All your ideas sound great!

Bean bags for the kids is always fun. Maybe make a clown with a big mouth to throw the bean bags into. Dolls can be fun to make.

Bookmarks painted on the material from an old pair of blue jeans.

With thick material (or quilted) eye glass cases.

Scarves or wraps for ladies and scarves for dogs.

Weird but fun...... painted light switch covers.

Collages with photos. Photo Albums of past Christmases.

Some craft ideas that come to mind (that you can google and find various instructions):
- stuffed animal snakes made out of your husband's old ties
- crayon roll (it's like an old-time tool bag, but it holds crayons instead. I made a few and they were pretty cute. Pick material that fits the kids' personality/likes. PM me if you want me to email you simple instructions)
- a photo book of your family. If you do A is for ___ and B is for ____ it could be for the whole family. The adults gets pictures of you, and the kids get an ABC book. For example, A could be for apples and you take a pic of your family when they went apple-picking last fall with your basket full of apples. B is for Banana and you take a pic of your kids eating bananas. C is for Construction and Celery - so you find pics of your son in a construction hat and of your daughter eating celery maybe.

O. year our friends made fleece scarves for all of their family and friends. I still have mine!

Have you seen the really cute fleece tied blankets for the kids?

candels and soaps can be used by all!

If you are going to have a family holiday you could make all the things and send them to yourself at your mom's via UPS. That way you won't have to worry about traveling with them and they will be there to give out.

Otherwise you will have to know what the all like in order to make something that is dear to them. Kitchen is always great or you could do different holiday linens for each.

I am quite sure you will have a great holiday whatever you do.

The other S.

For the 6 year old girl & 18 mths girls. You can make head bands out of fabric with flowers on them. Saw this last weekend. They are kinda thick and she sews the leaves on them with a different pattern then gets a flower to place on it in the middle. They just tie at the back of the neck so it will fit any size child's head. Also be cute to sew some fun pocket things to put your gift cards in if you end up giving a home depot gift card for a man, then have it in fabric that has tools on it or something and make it a pocket of some kind with a draw string.

I recently purchased from a friend some plain kitchen towels that she had embroidered with the name & mascot of our home state college football team. I plan on giving some of them as Christmas gifts. Maybe that would be an idea you could use.

No-sew fleece blankets for the little ones and no-sew fleece scarves for the older ones. Google them for instructions or PM me if interested. I'm making 6 blankets and about a dozen scarves myself, and they aren't expensive, they're easy to make, and they're not heavy or bulky to transport : )

What about throw blankets that you don't have to sew. You cut strips all along the two edges and tie the two together. Look up no sew blankets.

If there are little girls, you can make tutu's easily, or skirts if they're too old for tutu's. I was going to make cards with card stock writing little affirmations to the people in our family and decorating them nice. I'm doing a lot of making of things this year and not food since everyone is either diabetic or on a diet. =) I can't wait to read your responses. Good luck!

What about scrapbook or picture collage? You have a big family so I'm sure the kids would enjoy picking out pictures of themselves. Also, they can decorate picture frames.

We do the digital scrapbooks and then have the printed in book form. They are always enjoyed by the family and it's a family tradition now to sit around together on Christmas and look at them!

I just made a bathrobe for my daughter. Got the Simplicity pattern & used fleece for the material.
I know you said no jar items, but I have some aunts that have done mason jars with homemade hot chocolate mix so it's not anything that can spoil, and it's easy to make a lot of. There was also a year that one aunt did a jar of beans for "15 bean soup."
You could make pajama pants for adults out of some fun fabric or something.
If you embroider, you could get some tea towels and embroider a picture on them.
If I think of anything else, I'll get back to you!