Many years ago, a friend had two young girls with long hair who did daily battle in getting their hair done. That year I made her a gallon size bag stuffed with hair scrunchies... I did it because I had lots of fabric scraps and little money... to my surprise the next year she begged me to make her that same gift the next year. Those scrunchies took the daily battle out of hair time as the girls were side tracked picking out which one they were going to wear. So many useful gifts can be made using just scraps of fabric. Here's a list of 40 Free Projects to Sew Gifts and Stocking Stuffers from Scraps.

I don't care how much I plan and save for it, the Christmas list always seems to go out of control in December. I can't imagine what it would cost if I didn't sew... and the really crazy part of sewing gifts is that the home made gifts are the ones that are remembered. Economical fabric sources make it possible to sew economically so you don't have to break the bank to give a wonderful gift to everyone on your gift list!

One of the gifts that friends on our gift list look forward to is themed kitchen gift baskets. By choosing popcorn and using popcorn themed fabric, the gift is remembered every time they have popcorn on their family movie night. Another theme I choose one year was started by an apple themed fabric... an apple pie with every thing in the basket in apple print fabric made a memorable gift.

• Free Patterns and Projects to Sew Gifts for Everyone on Your Gift List

I have a friend who will throw a blanket over her shoulders to keep the chill away... and I mean over her shoulders! She bunches the blanket up and then wraps her hands in the ends of the blanket. I think I have the perfect gift for her. I made a shawl with nice deep pockets at each end so she can keep her hands warm ... or stuff her latest project. I can picture this free project keeping a lot of people warm. Check out the free directions to sew a warm fleece shawl with pockets.

I did it! I managed to squeak out some time from the wonderful Holiday weekend to get some gift sewing done. I had bought some fabric on clearance that was perfect for the little guy on our list but wasn't sure what to do with it... every clothing option I thought of, I could envision him out growing before he would out grow the print on the fabric... after all Thomas and Friends is going to be on his favorite list for a while with my husband working for the railroad.

I decided that it deserved to be part of a blanket but it was only printed on one side and definitely not heavy enough on its own as a blanket. I had a lot of blue fleece that picked up the color of the tracks on the print so I made a Fleece Blanket with Cotton Quilting Charm. I had a bit of the fabric left over and I've seen the little guy fall asleep in the car with his head tilting off to the side and decided to make a small pillow from plain white fabric and then make two pillow cases from the novelty print to match the blanket. I really think the gift will be a hit.

• Sewing Essentials to Survive the Holidays
• Christmas Sewing Projects
• Christmas Ornaments to Sew
• Free Sewing Patterns for Baby, Children And Teen Gifts
• Free Patterns and projects to Sew Guy Gifts