You’ve still got plenty of time before Christmas to make gifts, but be careful! It can be so easy to get excited and decide you’re making everyone their gifts. Be kind to yourself and only commit to making a few. Choose things you want to make for people who you know will appreciate them. Buy materials as you need them to avoid the overflow of guilt-inducing craft products you didn’t use. Don’t fall into the “it’s cheaper to make this than buy it” trap. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of your time. If you’ve decided you’re going to make some gifts, here are some quick and easy suggestions:

• Masks. By now everyone has a stash of masks, but they’re probably getting tired looking, the elastic might be letting go, or we’ve realized we prefer a different style. Kids in school especially need more masks. Always.
• Bags. This was the year I realized how satisfying bag-making is. They’re relatively quick sews, require zero fitting, and can look super professional if you get your hands on a hardware kit.
• Aprons! No fitting needed and you can use some unique fabric that will be special to the gift recipient.
• Wax wraps and snack bags. This has been on the list before, but I’m putting it again because I find I personally never have enough.
• A toque. This is an amazing scrap buster if you’ve got awkward pieces of knit fabric lying around. Bonus points if you make a cute Pom Pom to top it!
• Umbrella bags. If you’ve made yourself a raincoat, use the scraps to make a waterproof bag to stash a wet umbrella! Transit users will thank you.

• DIY waxing kit. If you’ve gotten good at making the wax, make a bunch, put it in little jars, add some cotton scraps and popsicle sticks and voila! At-home upper-lip kit.
• Delicates laundry bag. Use scraps of mesh or netting (like power net or bra lining) and add a zipper for washing things like bras or reusable wax cotton strips.

• Braided scrap rugs. You don’t need to make an actual rug size, but you could totally make little ones to act as pot holders or to go under potted plants!
• Bandana bibs. Know someone having a baby or got a kid younger than 1? They need bandana bibs. I honestly used about six a day when my son was teething. You can never have enough.

Here are posts from years past: 2019, 2018