Handmade Holidays
Every year is a fantastic year for handmade holidays. This year, especially, is a perfect time for gathering simple supplies and creating little gifts or toys for family and friends. One of a kind gifts are so appreciated! And many of us will be spending even more time at home this holiday season due to the pandemic.
I recently looked for a photo in the archives and found all of these fun ideas that I made through the years with students and as gifts for my kids, friends, and family. The pattern for fairies or crafts is a perfect seed that can grow in many different directions. I collected a few of my favorites here. Our invitation, of course, is to take your inspiration and make it your own :)
I share a photo here with the idea, and which book has the most similar pattern. Some are loosely based on existing projects. Making gifts is one of my favorite seasonal activities.
Child Made Fairies
We made these many years as gifts for students to give their families. Children chose their colors of felt and sequins. I loved the variety and how each fairy spoke to each student. We wrapped them and gave them to a family member so they would stay on the student’s holiday tree (which students appreciated). Of course, they often made another for grandparents :). The fairies are the introductory fairy design found in both books which sparkly pipe cleaners and variegated red/green/white crochet thread.
Oh, and the tree was a cone sold at the craft store that my son painted. When the paint dried, he used a silver pen to draw the stars.
Favorite Characters
Whether your favorites are a certain ice queen, or Santa, you can create storybooks with fairies. For the ice queen, I used the Leprechaun pattern from Forest Fairy Crafts for her dress with curvy lines instead of triangles. Her hat uses star-shaped sequins. Santa was made with the wizard robe from Forest Fairy Crafts. His robe is edged with faux fur, which is visually perfect but super-fiddly, fair warning. If you haven’t tried it before, practice cutting before making your strips to sew on the robe. You need to “part” the fur to clip the underlying cloth. It can be tricky for pushing a needle through depending on how tightly wound the underlying fabric is. I sewed two strips along the front of the robe, not around the neck because the fur is too stiff. You can achieve the same look with white felt edging a red coat. You could even make it shorter to look just like Santa’s jacket. Mrs. Claus can be made with a red and white felt dress.
Children would have a difficult time sewing faux fur. If they’re sewing, I recommend white felt and white sequins. The little pompom on top of his hat was found in a packet of pompoms at the craft store.
I also gave Santa a white shirt and red pants using black thread with the basic fairy pattern. He’s a favorite ornament on our tree now :)
Winter Fairy Ornament
The winter fairies are wonderful ornaments or toys for kids that love a certain ice queen movie. They’re in Magical Forest Fairy Crafts through the Seasons which has their exact instructions (no modifications necessary).
The Fairy Family
This was a gift for my niece when she enjoyed dollhouses and little worlds. This family featured many of her favorite colors. I’ve given them as well when the fairies matched people in a child’s own family (two brothers or two moms or more children). I even add gnomes to show a baby. You can make the “adult” fairies and “baby” gnomes with either book. The “kids” aka little brother and sister are in Forest Fairy Crafts.
Mermaid Ornament
These are above-and-beyond mermaids I made when my daughter was obsessed with mermaids. A mermaid by herself isn’t that seasonal until you give her a Santa hat. The faux fur is fiddly, and not the most fun for hand sewing, so I wouldn’t expect a child to enjoy sewing with it. The hat looks great with white felt as well if the faux fur is too fiddly. You can make mermaids with the mermaid pattern in Forest Fairy Crafts. I wanted a challenge so I tweaked the mermaid pattern to the curve (currently not in a book). You don’t need a curving pattern to make a cute mermaid ornament for your tree. When I do tweak patterns, I first trace the top of the pattern that needs to math onto a blank piece of paper, then draw the curving tail. I cut that out and hold up to a wireframe fairy body to see if the scale will work, then cut a piece of scrap felt to again see if I like the shape and scale (too small or too big). If it looks good, I cut the final version from the felt I’ll use for the ornament. You can use this technique to adjust just about any pattern to match a new idea.
Hand Sewn Ornaments
These are in Magical Forest Fairy Crafts through the Seasons, including the shapes for appliqué. You can tuck a tea bag into them for cinnamon or minty scents. These (not as fancy stitching) were one of the first sewing projects we brought into classrooms. They were favorite family gifts. If you do add a tea-bag, they can be gifted as sachets (though don’t get the tea bags wet. Tea will stain the felt).
Angels
You can create guardian angels that can stay on a shelf or hang in a window all year round, or they can be ornaments. I’ve made them with soft highlight colors, like in the photo above, or leaning into silver or gold, like in the photo below.
For the fancy fairy, below, her iridescent wings were at the craft store and I knew they would look amazing on an angel. I added them the same way as I make any other fairy wings winding the thread around her shirt and wings. I added the red heart button on her hat for the love she holds in her heart.
The angel is in Forest Fairy Crafts.
Star Babies
Star babies were a favorite with second-grade students. They were so charming and lent themself to a “wish upon a star” thought to go with the ornament as a gift. With my son, I let him choose a favorite color for his star baby. The star babies that my kids made at school are treasured ornaments (scroll to see a few made by students a couple of years ago). Star babies are in Forest Fairy Crafts.
Christmas Fairies
They may be simple, but they’re still magical. The premise for these fairies is seasonal colors. Red, green, and white for Christmas. With gold bells. They’re a celebration of nostalgic Christmas celebrations. I found the little candy cane in the miniatures section of the craft store. And the fancy ribbon with edging was also in the craft store. The nice thing with fairies is a little of a supply goes a long way. I like the beads because they look like ornaments themselves. The sparkly pipe cleaners are also fun when Christmas lights shine on them. You can find many seasonal petals at places like the Dollar Store. The pattern for Christmas fairies is the basic fairy pattern in both books. The Christmas fairies in the left image are in Forest Fairy Crafts.
Modern or Mod Christmas Fairies
While I love classic Christmas colors as much as anyone, playing with modern colors delights me (or are they retro colors, or mod colors?). Regardless, they’re so fun to play with pink, turquoise, and lime green. The scalloped ribbon was a perfect decorative accent (you can see another shade on the Christmas fairy, above). And you may recognize the star sequin from the ice queen fairy with Santa. You’ll start seeing elements appearing on very different fairies. After all, a little decoration goes a long way :). You can use the flower from Forest Fairy Crafts or spring fairy from Magical Forest Fairy Crafts Through the Seasons with whatever colors inspire your holiday vibe.
Phew, if you made it this far, congratulations! I created galleries below that may inspire you. All of the projects are the same as those mentioned above. I do have more projects that didn’t appear in either book. I’d love to share more for different holidays. And I have more, like the peppermints fairies. More inspirations for other posts. For now, I hope one of these has sparked an idea that could entertain you, and/or your children, in the weeks before the holidays. Once you learn one, it’s easy to make more and more. I’ve heard of people gifting them to local children’s organizations. And one person made quite a few to decorate a tree in the local children’s hospital, that could be gifted to children on Christmas. The holidays are all about sharing magic.
Enjoy!
My favorite holidays are handmade :)
Handmade Holiday Gifts in the Forest Fairy Crafts Books for Decorations and Giving to Family and Friends
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A Very Mermaid Christmas
Few people know that Christmas is popular even under the sea. Mermaids wear festive hats just for the occasion!
Many years, I create an ornament that shows whatever is enchanting my kids that year. From the Orange Fairy when my son was obsessed with all things Orange, to the Peppermint Fairy from the year my daughter danced as a Peppermint in our local Nutcracker ballet, the ornaments are fun to make, and even more fun to remember.
The peppermint fairy was a gift the year my daughter danced as a peppermint in the Nutcracker
Helping kids make fairies is fun. However, anytime I help them, I take the back-seat in order to support their ideas and choices. So giving myself room to create any fairy that I want is tremendous freedom.
My daughter has a (slight) mermaid obsession. We included mermaids in the Forest Fairy Craft book. They were summer mermaids with crowns. How could I modify the mermaid for the holidays?
I wanted a tail that curved, which took finagling. A few trial and error attempts where it looked too bulky or gigantic. I always draw pieces on paper first to cut out and test shapes. Then I use test felt (inexpensive felt in any color) which I can sew together with a few little stitches to see if the scale works. Once it does, time to create!
Both my daughter and nice love turquoise, so I used that as an inspiration color for both mermaids.
Using just a wee strip of faux fur on their hat was a fun carryover from other fairies that I was working on at the time (Saint Nicholaus). The Faux Fur is a little tricky to sew, hard to get the needle through, so it's definitely an adult quest. You could create a similar look with a strip of white felt.
I also use metallic thread similar to this one for that added sparkle. It's tricky to sew with the thread so it winds around their outfit.
The girls loved their mermaids! And it's a joy to see them again year after year.
Happy creating, one and all!
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Sew Sweet Felt Ornaments
Hurrah, the holidays are here! In our home, we celebrate each year with a hand-crafted ornament. They show us the years in a story. "I remember making this!" my daughter said with excitement.
This is very impressive since she painted it when she was one :)
This year, we are sewing. My three-year-old sewed the beads and sequins on his tree.
Can you guess his favorite color?
I know he'll be reminscing about this tree in future years. And we want to share the fun. You can download the tutorial for these very easy felt ornaments. Children get to decorate both sides so it is a perfect first project for children learning to sew. Older children can trace other shapes around cookie cutters and get fancy with their stitching and decorating. We hope that you enjoy the craft!
Happy Holidays!
Click here to download the PDF tutorial
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