Handmade Fiber Gift Ideas

We all enjoy receiving handmade gifts, and it’s not too late to make some yourself to give to family and friends this holiday season. Or make your own gift bags and tags, or holiday decorations. We have some ideas to share to help inspire you!

I recently shared ideas for our in-store Make & Take activities on our Facebook Live (visit our YouTube channel for the video), using recycled fabrics and orphaned quilt blocks to make holiday garlands. I did so by cutting out stocking shapes and a length of trim or sari silk ribbon. Another idea is using scraps from old clothing from your family — each piece of your garland would evoke memories to share!

And speaking of stockings, we will be drawing the randomly selected winners of our handmade holiday stockings this Saturday morning, December 13 — get your donations for Food for Others in by Friday night to help us make our annual fundraiser the best ever! You can glimpse five of our stockings above right, as well as the fun embellished trees I made this year using my collection of vintage ornaments!

I always enjoy stitching wool ornaments using some of our wooden printing blocks with  Artistic Artifacts paints for a stitching guideline. Our textile paints are formulated to leave your surface fabric soft, so it’s easy to stitch through it, whether by hand or machine. The example above was created several years ago and shown in our How Do I Make Holiday Ornaments? video if you’re interested in additional details. This year I also tried printing on WonderFil Rinse Away. These designs were then applied to the wool for easy embellishment with hand stitching (example visible in the first photo). When your stitching is done, you just rinse the adhesive off in cold water before attaching a backing and trim for hanging. Not only do these make nice gifts, they’re also great for gift tags on your packages!

Another past video to pass along is our Holiday Ornament Inspiration roundup, sharing examples of holiday ornaments you can make and personalize, including several versions of ornaments with printed images using Fabric & Textile Packages with Transfer Artist Paper and EQ Printable Premium Cotton Lawn. All of our prepared for images products are an easy away to use photographs and imagery in your fiber projects. Our exclusive Fragment Doll Kits can also be used as a perfect start for your own mixed media ornaments!

Meanwhile, we have staff who’ve been busy making table runners! These are great hostess gifts or to decorate your own home for the holidays. Barbara Rowe, one of our BERNINA experts at the shop, recently finished and shared the Fall in Love Table Runner (above).

Look at all that wonderful textural embellishment in the detail above left! Barbara used her serger and beautiful batik fabrics with the free pattern by Pam Mahshie, the BERNINA Overlock Machine Business Manager. The segment is titled Teach Me How to Quilt Using a Serger and can be found on QuiltStreet.com; the pattern comes with four versions.

And Chris Vinh has really been busy with sewing/quilting projects! Above is a quick and easy table runner that uses the Lil’ Inga pattern by GE Designs. The pattern calls for 5 in. squares of fabric — you can use a precut charm pack, or cut your own and an accent fabric. Chris recommends the Creative Grids Stripology Squared Mini Ruler, but as with all GE Designs quilt patterns, instructions are included for using a regular ruler.

Chris cut her squares for her Lil’ Inga table runner from a Inkwell by Studio RK Fat Quarter Bundle) — black & white fabrics are such a favorite of mine that even the earliest versions of my online store included them as their own category — with a fun Marcia Derse Palette Solid in red for the accent and binding. Shown above, you can see how Chris often makes her table runners reversible — this is a great way to have your runner work for more than one holiday or to flip over for a fresh look with a new season. Above right is another recent make, seasonal artisan batiks that Chris worked up with the Lil’ Marina pattern.

Chris recently tried out the Braid Runner Midi Kit, and said it took her under two hours to iron, cut, piece/quilt the beautiful table runner pictured above! “Another quick and fun finish in time for the holidays!” Chris shared. “I used a half yard bundle of the metallic fabrics, knowing I would have plenty for more than one project.”

Above left, one of the Artistic Artifacts Curated Fabric Bundles that Chris selected for her project with beautiful metallic prints; — right is the Take It Easy Runner Quilt-As-You-Go Batting Kit that Chris created with two of our curated Pen Pal mini fabric FQ bundles. “It will make a perfect gift for a teacher or someone who loves their writing utensils. Just iron the backing to the batting and then ‘sew by numbers’ on the top,” Chris wrote. In both projects using the GE Designs Quilt-As-You-Go Batting Kits, Chris found she had plenty of fabric remaining after completing her runners. “I’ve already cut the extra fabrics for a few bags.”

Any Creative Mind of the last few years knows that OF COURSE when Chris mentions a bag, she’s likely thinking of her favorite of the kz stevens patterns, the Modern Japanese Rice Pouch — she’s famous for her beautiful versions, embellished with hand stitching and innovative piecing and patching! Pictured above are three of her recent makes. Chris has given many rice pouch bags gifts, and has also used them to ‘wrap’ a small gift — two presents in one!

“I started another Modern Japanese Rice Pouch yesterday using Poppy Fields canvas, Teal Butterflies by Tim Holtz and Finnabair Mini Transfers,” Chris posted during construction (above). Now for some hand stitching with Painters Threads.” I wanted to share this as an example of how beautifully the Finnabair Mini Transfer image applied to Chris’ fabric. accented with stitched on Finnabair Mechanicals. We have so many mixed media & surface design products to use in ‘traditional’ fiber arts.

Above, Barbara's Rice Pouch from last year. “Made with holiday fabrics from my stash,” she shared. “I’m planning on putting a poinsettia in it, and give it as a gift.” We love seeing all four sides! These are a great way to feature a fabric or panel you love, or to use up scraps from a quilt.

Andy Martin, pictured above, is making his own gift bags this season using his fabric stash and BERNINA L890 Overlocker. He showed us how he did it on December 6 during our weekly Saturday morning Facebook Live presentation — visit our YouTube channel for the archived presentation.

We have lots of Hand Stitching & Craft Projects, and many include all the supplies you need to get started: embroidery designs, felt kits, needle felting and needle punch kits and more. You can either use one of our kits to make a present for someone on your list, or give the kit itself as a gift (we include them in our Gift Ideas category) — any creative mind would love it!

Our staffer Becca Woodford is a needle felting whiz, and recently showed us how easy the craft it, creating our store sample stretching cat from one of the all supplies provided kits by Hawthorn Handmade.

We hope we’ve given you some inspiration for some last minute gift ideas! We’d love to see what you are making for gifts this year, so be sure to share to our Artistic Artifacts Creative Minds Facebook Group.