14 Ways to Upcycle Fabric Scraps as Gifts for Kids

Looking for a cute but eco-conscious gift for that special child in your life? We have brought together some of the most darling ideas for kid’s gifts that you can make from your stash of fabric scraps or fabric remnants.

Hopefully, you’ll find something fabulous and put a smile on their face with a one of a kind gift.

Make a Soft Toy Fox from Scrap Fabric

How cute is this little guy? He is just crying out to be some special boy or girl’s best buddy.

And with all those pieces you can make him as multi-coloured and unique as you like. He could be super dapper in scraps of tweed and wool or fun and playful with a mix of spotty and stripy fabric.

So many ways to make him your own.

The pattern for him is available from Angel Lea Designs. It isn’t free but it is an instant download so you can get started straight away!

You can find the Fox Sewing Pattern here.

Give a Scrap Fabric Dream Catcher

This gift idea isn’t perhaps exclusively for kids but we think it would look great in a nursery or hanging over a child’s bed above the headboard.

You can colour coordinate with their existing decor or just use every last scrap for a creative hodgepodge!

Pattern Revolution has a step by step tutorial for this one with lots of useful photos to guide you.

Make Fabric Bows

If you have scraps of fabric in heavy cotton or other stiff fabric you can make these cute bows, either as a hair clip, bow tie or attached to a headband.

A lovely little present for a girl or a boy. Or you could even stick one on a teddy bear or the soft toy fox above for fun!

Alexa Zurcher has a simple tutorial with helpful process photos to follow here.

Sew a Fabric Memory Matching Game

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This idea of making a memory game from upcycled fabric scraps is a great one if you also have some larger fabric remnant pieces so you can use one colour fabric for the backing and your scraps as the matching patterns on the opposite sides.

We found so many great variations for how you could do this one from the lovely minimalist circles from Inchmark to the Alphabet version by Sisters What.

Each one of the examples above has great tutorials and some even have printable templates. Just click on the image above to go to the tutorial.

Make an Indoor Bowling Set out of Leftover Fabric

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This, quite frankly, is a brilliant idea for a kid’s gift. It’s an indoor bowling set made from scrap fabric.

Here are the main points in its favour as a gift:

1) The pieces are soft and no one can get hurt – even if they get thrown at you.

2) There are no flashing lights or annoying sounds to drive the adults bonkers.

3) It’s virtually free if you use scrap fabric for the outside and stuffing from some old cushions for the inside!

Unfortunately, Saidos de Concha (the lovely first photo above) didn’t have a tutorial but there is a cheap pattern available for instant download on Etsy from Sew Like My Mom. You can find it here.

Upcycle Fabric Scraps into a Stacking Toy for a Baby

If the children in your life are a little younger, then this baby stacking ring made out of scrap fabric could be a brilliantly original idea to try.

We found this one over on Twenty First Century Lady.

Her blog explaining how she made this has the measurements for all the pattern pieces and a photo so you can see what all the pieces should look like. Because there are so many pieces, this really is a great scrap busting project!

You can find her tutorial here.

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Make a Scrap Fabric Name Garland

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Everyone, including little kids, loves getting a gift with their own name on it. These sweet name garland signs would look fab in any child’s room or nursery.

The Stitching Scientist has a good tutorial for how to make the letters here.

We also linked to some other great tutorials about making alphabet letters in different ways in our piece 17 Brilliant Ideas for Upcycling Your Scrap Fabric.

Upcycle Fabric Scraps into Pacifier Clips

People have different names for pacifiers depending on where you live. But whether you call it a pacifier clip, a dummy clip or a binky clip, these cute little do-dads are a great way to save the sanity of many a parent as well as a great way to upcycle your fabric scraps!

Let’s face it what Mum or Dad wants to be re-sterilising a pacifier several times a day because little Joey keeps dropping it on the floor? None, ever. So maybe this is more a gift for the parents than the kids but either way, someone will thank you for it!

Fabric Flowers – the Gift that Never Wilts!

These long stem roses made from upcycled fabric would be a lovely gift for a slightly older child who would appreciate their long-lasting beauty.

We might see them as lovely decor items for a bedroom, but don’t be surprised if the recipient puts them to use in imaginative play involving Snow White and Beauty and the Beast!

The tutorial for how to make them is from Snowy Bliss and you can find it here.

Make a Magic Star Wand from Fabric Scraps!

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While we have fairy tales and magic on the brain, what about making a whimsical star wand as a way to upcycle fabric scraps and give a kid’s gift to remember? We really loved this idea but we struggled to find a great tutorial.

We did find this one from Wiki How that details a few different ways to make Fairy Star Wands.

If you follow the method for the felt ones but replace the felt with scrap fabric you will have a lovely upcycled version!

Quilted Fabric Tea Party Set made from Scrap Fabric

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This one is less of a last-minute gift whipped up from scrap fabric and more a labour of love. But if you have the time, and the scrap fabric stash, what a charming and amazing gift this would be to receive – your very own patchwork quilted tea set! It’s the sort of gift you would pass down through generations (assuming it was taken care of!).

In terms of tutorials, the best one we found was for the Mad Hatter Tea Set version (the second photo in pink and green) from Instructables.

Their tutorial is very detailed and has images of the pattern pieces.

Handmadiya (the first photo above with the bow on the lid of the teapot) has more of a photo tutorial with no explanation of the steps, probably a bit too difficult to follow for most people but go ahead and click on the image to go to the page and judge for yourself.

Finally, the third photo is from Ric Rac Sews. She sells the pattern for this set fairly inexpensively on Etsy.

You can find the sewing pattern here.

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If you want to take this fabulous kid’s gift to the next level, go ahead and add some fabric tea bags too!

Handmade Frenzy has a lovely tutorial for making these fabric tea bags here.

Another great scrap busting gift!

Make a Play Mat for Toy Cars from Scrap Fabrics

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This brilliant gift idea of making a car mat complete with roads out of scrap fabric is like the tea set idea, in that it is not one you can quickly whip up the night before Christmas or the weekend before a birthday party.

This is another of those gifts that will ooze the love you have for your grandchildren or nieces and nephews from every stitch.

We found it a little difficult to find decent tutorials for this one as perhaps most people just make it up as they go along.

However, Fairfield World has a tutorial (the green car mat) and Zunzunblog has a downloadable tutorial here. Their blog is in French but you should be able to translate it online fairly easily.

Now almost all of these examples have black or grey roads, we aren’t sure that is necessary. How cute would these be if the roads were made of different patterned fabrics as well?

A brown paisley to indicate a muddy farm road, a sparkly pink and purple fabric to indicate the road to the Fairy Godmother’s House, and a swatch of yellow fabric for…of course…Dorothy’s yellow brick road!

Little Softies Animal Toys from Leftover Fabric Scraps

Lastly, this simple idea of using fabric scraps to create cute little soft toy animals is a great one.

Maggierama sell patterns for these little guys but we also love the idea of letting the size of your fabric scraps speak to you about what animal or creature they should become. Stich on some eyes and a smile before stuffing and closing or get fancy and applique on contrasting fabric for the facial features.

Even seeing them sitting in the basket like that makes this seem like a great occasional all year round project – using up scraps as and when – that becomes a lovely basket of toys like this by the time Christmas rolls around again!

Alas, so many fabric scraps to upcycle, so little time! We hope you found some ideas that inspired you here.

If you are still looking for that perfect idea to upcycle your fabric scraps check out our 17 Brilliant Ideas for Upcycling your Scrap Fabric.

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