How To Make Christmas Decorations From Old Fabric

At Clothes Doctor, we always say that one of the worst things you can do with unwanted clothes is to throw them away. You could resell them, donate them to charity, or swap them with friends - but this week, we're showing you how to get festive with your old clothing and fabric scraps. We've got a few ideas of how you can use unwanted fabric to make homemade Christmas decorations to avoid throwing old clothing away. Plus, making decorations is always better and more eco-friendly than buying new plastic baubles every year! So if you're looking for a fun activity to keep the kids busy in the run up to Christmas, or to put your right-brain to use with something creative, here's how to make homemade Christmas decorations from old fabric. 

 

You Will Need: Enough scrap fabric to make your desired length of bunting, a pen, scissors, a needle and thread (or sewing machine), and ribbon or string to hang. 

We've chosen to write 'Merry Christmas' on our bunting, but you could choose any phrase. Alternatively, you could just use festive colours and patterns instead of words. All you need to do is write out the letters of your phrase on one fabric, cut them out, and sew or glue them to equal-sized triangles of another fabric. Then, connect your triangles by sewing (or fabric gluing) them onto some ribbon or string, and hang your homemade Christmas bunting in your home. 

 

    

Lets face it, a lot of Christmas crackers can be very wasteful, with those little bits of plastic you'll, let's be honest, never use again. So why don't you make your own decorative fabric Christmas crackers? These homemade Christmas decorations are perfect for using fabric, but also for reusing last year's ribbon and your useless loo roll tubes! 

You Will Need: Any scrap fabric, ribbon, cardboard tube, scissors, needle and thread (or sewing machine), and anything you want to put in your crackers. 

• measure the circumference of your cardboard tube (you can do this by wrapping your ribbon round the tube, marking where the ribbon makes a circle, and then measuring the length with a ruler or tape measure). 
• now you know that the fabric you're using to cover your Christmas crackers needs to be the same width as the circumference of the cardboard tube, and needs to have a length a little longer than the length of the tube, so you can have excess fabric to tie up with the ribbon. 
• sew your fabric into a tube shape (inside out so your seams are hidden) and turn back the right way round to put around the tube. 
• pop anything you fancy inside your Christmas crackers - you could even add a cracker bang to replicate traditional Christmas crackers.
• tie up the ends with ribbon (you'll need about 10-15cm) in a bow, and tah-dah, you've got your own homemade Christmas decorations, and your Christmas crackers are ready to decorate the dinner table for the big day. 

Are you struggling for last minute Christmas present inspiration? Don't stress, we've got you covered. Check out our Eco-Friendly Christmas Gift Guide, where we've shared some ideas for our favourite low-waste, plastic free alternatives to Christmas gifting staples. 

 READ OUR GIFT GUIDE 

3. Pom-Pom Wreath

You Will Need: a continuous length of wool/yarn, cardboard from which you can make two donut shapes with slits in (see our video), scissors. 

With your two pieces of cardboard together, simply start wrapping your yarn around the cardboard, layering up the wool and wrapping right to the edges. Once you've layered it up a few times, cut an end to your yarn and do a couple more wrap-arounds of the yarn to tuck the end underneath. Then, use scissors to gently cut the yarn around the join of the cardboard pieces, and use a final piece of yarn between the cardboard to tie the yarn in place tightly. Then remove your cardboard and keep safe for the next pom-pom. If that sounds tricky, it's easier to watch our video above (starting at 0.45s) so you can see exactly what to do! 

Now you've got a pom-pom which is a great starting point to a number of different homemade Christmas decorations - you could string them up and put single pom-poms on the tree, but we've chosen to make a few pom-poms and tie them together in a circle shape to make a pom-pom wreath. 

 

 Don't throw away your old clothing or scrap fabric - now you know how to make your own homemade Christmas decorations out of them, so nothing goes to waste. A fun, festive activity to enjoy with the family, and a fantastic way to be a little more mindful of our planet this Christmas. 

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