My Top 5 Projects for A Handmade Christmas

Christmas is my favourite time of year - next to my birthday month, and the kids' birthdays, my husband's birthday, our anniversary and maybe springtime if my allergies aren't too bad (well, let's just say I have lots of "favourite times of the years", shall we!). I love the caroling, time spent with family, the endless baking, the tree, the lights, the holiday spirit, predictable romantic made-for-TV movies, and the list goes on.

Since I got married and moved to Australia, one family tradition I have absolutely loved developing is collecting Christmas decorative items that hold meaning. These are things that my husband and I have bought and jointly added to our Christmas collection. The first of these was an ornament featuring Sydney Opera House which we picked up on our first visit to Sydney after we got married. Life was a bit uncertain then, but we were together and that's what was most important to us. For our first Christmas together in Brisbane, we intentionally purchased a tree that we hoped would last us for many years to come, we also purchased some wood carved ornaments, even tinsel - our goal was to be intentional about our purchases so that they were quality buys and not be too reliant on annual trends. And surprise, surprise, it turns out that most things that check all our boxes are in fact handmade! From felt ornaments to wooden ornaments, to even a couple of 3D printed snowflakes that were made by kids at our church, our tree is full of handmade goodness.

All of those handmade goodies have been inspiring me to try my hand at making items to be included in our Christmas decor pile this year. And it has been fun!! Without further ado, here are 5 few of my favourite projects for Christmas, in no particular order of preference.

*** There are links in this post but none of them are affiliate/ad links***

Fabric Christmas Trees

I love fabric trees so much! I discovered them last year (2024) and made one for our family. They are so great for adding a little Christmas to random corners, benchtops, bookshelves, sideboards, etc. One of our cushions had ripped not long before that and I was looking for a way to use up the stuffing, and this project seemed like the perfect place to use it up!

These have become increasingly popular, and there are many tutorials available online, so if you plan to attempt this project, definitely pick one that speaks to you the most! I liked the pattern for fabric trees by patterns for pirates.

I tweaked the pattern a bit to add an extra "branch", and I am pretty pleased with the results.

Chopsticks are great for getting stuffing into that corner. Next year I might add some embellishments to our tree. Perhaps some bells to the ends of the branches?

Want a fabric tree for your home, but don't want to make one? Get in touch with me for a custom one!

Fabric Tree Ornaments

After the success of the fabric tree from 2024, all year long I mulled over the possibility of making smaller fabric trees, more ornament size. And that was the first experiment for this year! I used the same patterns for pirates template for this project as well; I simply scaled it down to 50% of its original size.

And it turned out better than I had hoped for! It hung rather beautifully and wasn't too difficult to stuff. It even spun on the ribbon, which was absolutely magical. And because it uses really small bits of fabric, you can make scrappy ones, like the one pictured here, with very little fabric.

For a planned one with all the same colours, like the red and white gingham one, you will need 4 x 5" squares. I strongly recommend a smaller rotary cutter as well - made my life so much easier once I used that! It was much easier to cut along the curves. I also recommend cutting two at a time but cutting them as mirror image sets. That way when they're sewn together, even if your cutting isn't great, each branch will still align. It is possible to overstuff these, so do be mindful of that. Also, chopsticks are great for getting the stuffing into those corners! I used 6.5" ribbon strip as my hanging loop, but there are many other options for this available.

As the original is a "cut on fold" template, I created a full template for this one, i.e., not one that needs to be cut on the fold, by laying the "cut on fold" template on a folded piece of paper. It's not a perfect solution, because my paper template is already looking pretty grim after one season, but hey, we all have to start somewhere! Perhaps next year I'll plan for something sturdier.

Fair warning, these are SUPER addictive to make. And they look amazing on a tree. And as these are not breakable, they are safe in little toddler hands as well!

Quilted Stockings

Quilted stockings were the first handmade Christmas items I made, a few years ago. Stockings are such a big part of Christmas decoration tradition, and handmade stockings are great because they become part of the family tradition, lasting years and years and years. Of course, that all can sound like too much pressure - how do you know which style to make? Or size or colour? Too many choices!

Well, that's the best thing about handmade items, you really can just make and tweak as you go. And if you don't love the results, you can always try something different! I bought a bundle of leftover + offcuts of Christmas fabric on Facebook Marketplace and had all this lovely Christmas fabric to play with. I didn't love all of them, but I didn't want any of them to go to waste - and what better way to use up fabric you don't love but still want to use, than to try out a new pattern or skill? As a bonus I got to use up lots of my leftover batting from quilts I made this year - woohoo! For my first lot of stockings, I used a template from a free pattern tutorial by Suzy Quilts, the template was by Lunden Designs. I liked how it turned out and tried out a few variations. I tried a basic patchwork and a couple of letter stockings.

But I didn't love how the letter stocking turned out. So, this year I went back to the drawing board. I looked and looked and finally found the stocking I liked at a second-hand store in Brisbane. I traced it out to create a template! Making the letters had some challenges as well, but it all came together rather well!

These stockings were made for my friend's three kiddos - how adorable are they?? I think she picked the cutest fabric! And to make things more exciting the backs of each of these stockings features a lovely Christmas-y gingham.

If you're making stockings for the first time, I strongly recommend using a pattern, like the free ones linked above. You might want to use your own template, but it's easier to make the stockings if you can follow along to some instructions. Other things to keep in mind - seam allowance when making the letters. I had to re-do one of my letters a couple of times because I kept forgetting it in places - oops! If you're using directional fabric, make sure to take that into account when cutting your pieces. I also prefer to quilt my stocking panel and then cutting out the stocking template.

Photo Ornaments

This was another favourite from this year's sewing. These photo ornaments are so quick and easy to make! They use the smallest scraps. And because I am the perpetual fabric/quilted section off cuts/leftover batting hoarder, it became the PERFECT gift for me! I followed a pattern by Evann Creates but these have been around in the past, my sewing friends tell me! I made a few changes to the pattern in the dimensions of the corner triangles. And I left off the bow in the middle. These are perfect for framing photo memories on your tree every year. Next year, I plan to add a tag to the back of each ornament so relevant dates can be added.

These are also super addictive to make, so be prepared to end up with way too many. To be honest, I have lost track of how many of these I have made this year. Good thing it's Christmas and the perfect opportunity for gift giving!

From my calculations, you can add photos that are about 3.75" square to these. Alternatively, you can also change the dimensions of these photo ornaments to fit other photos - endless possibilities!

Fabric Bunting

This is a yet-to-make project at the moment. But it is on my list for this year, so fingers crossed I do get it sorted before long! I have had fabric bunting saved in my projects pile for a while now, but I always get a bit nervous thinking it will be too big or too small, or I won't have the right template, or the right hanging string or whatever other excuse I could think of in the moment (my current one for procrastinating is that I don't know which fabrics to use!). However, when I made fabric bunting earlier this year, I found it super simple and absolutely fell in love with the process. It was an afternoon's project at most (with a few interruptions here and there!). I went with a purple theme for my bunting, because I had a lot of purples in my stash. But here's what made it easier: First of, I didn't end up using a bunting template at all - I used my triangle ruler for cutting out triangles for tri-rec or triangle in square blocks. As it was a sturdy template, I could cut out layers of bunting triangles using my regular rotary cutter.

I went back and forth between sewing the bunting the right way out and using pinking shears on the raw edges or sewing them the wrong way out and going through the arduous process of turning everything out again. In the end I went with the second method and spent a few minutes in front of the television with my chopstick trying to get the corners pushed out as much as possible. Fun times!

The next tip that made the process easier for me was using premade bias binding strips! Luckily, we live near a few thrift stores that always have some sewing/haberdashery items available for not much money. I found this white bias binding strip at one of them. It's 5m long and it was for AU$2 - woohoo! I sealed up one end of the strip, then placed the raw edge of the bunting triangles inside the bias binding and top stitched it in place as if I were sewing binding onto any other project. The binding was a tad thinner than I would like, which made the sewing a little tricky in places; I think the next time I would prefer to get something a bit wider. But it didn't impact the project too much. It was done before I knew it. Then a good press and the project is finished! Also, I was surprised by how long it ended up being - 5m is a lot of bunting!

Now I have this lovely purple bunting for my next purple themed party, or a random Thursday, whichever comes first.

And there you have it - my 5 projects from this year for more handmade this Christmas. I would be remiss if I didn't mention all the projects I didn't get to do this year. On my list were fabric bows, fabric ornaments (like stars and things), an advent calendar, a fabric tree for my daughters' felt ornaments, fabric gift bags, etc. - and that's just all the fabric stuff! I also want to add dough ornaments, Christmas crafts with the kids, Christmas cards for our friends, and the list would truly have no end. Sigh, there's never enough time to make all things I would like!

If you like me want to include more intentional, handmade items to your Christmas season this year, but lack the time or resources to do so, there is an option to do the next best thing - which is to buy from another creative maker. Typically, most places have heaps of handmade markets around this time of year if you're looking for inspiration. Or if you already have a favourite creative maker now is the best time to show them some love and support. Pro tip: if their products are typically out of your budget, have another look at their website now, many creative businesses offer sales this time of year. Or perhaps it can be someone else's Christmas gift to you.

I have been super blessed this season of life because I am currently surrounded by so many super talented creative makers (any many of them mamas!). I didn't get around to making fabric ornaments this year, but we still got to hang one on our tree because my friend Kelsey had made some this year. My husband picked out his favourite one - a stocking - and now it hangs on our tree! You can find more of her items through her Facebook group - Love, Leo Handmade.

Which one of these projects are you going to make this year? Do you have a favourite handmade Christmas tradition or a go-to handmade project? Let me know in the comments!