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Winter Crafts To Keep You Warm

Looking for a fun Christmas hobby or a new DIY activity this winter? We've got five super fun winter crraft ideas to keep you warm!

There are literally hundreds of craft items that can be made to keep you warm in the winter. These super items can be crafted throughout the summer months and used during the winter to keep you warm or to give as gifts.

Craft items can be personal, and intended to be worn by the recipient, or can be made for the home, such as curtain linings, draught excluders or throws.

Knitted Accessories

If you are a keen knitter, then creating personalized accessories should be no problem, whether you are looking at gloves, scarves, sweaters, tank tops, hats or socks.

Even if you are a novice at knitting, items such as scarves are easy to knit. Choose a chunky, textured yarn and your items will turn out looking stylish and expensive. As you gain more experience, you can try beanie hats and fingerless gloves, etc.

Swiss Darning is a great way to add a crafty personal touch to an existing garment and to add layers at the same time. Swiss Darning means that you use a darning needle and a length of yarn (match the type to the garment eg. wool or acrylic) and sew over the knitted stitches so that the resulting design looks like it was knitted when the garment was created.

Winter Crafts To Keep You Warm

Sewn Accessories

If you have a sewing machine, you can run up all sorts of items that will keep you or your friends and family warm during the winter. Start with scarves and wraps and work your way up to body warmers and jackets.

Sewn accessories can be decorated with a variety of craft skills, such as appliqué, embroidery, cut-work, smocking or even patchwork.

If you are not a confident seamstress, you can still use your craft skills to personalize plain sewn items and to make them really stand out from the crowd. Unique gifts can easily be created with a little skill and the application of a deftly wielded needle!

Winter Crafts To Keep You Warm

Blankets and Throws

Blankets and throws are great to snuggle up to in the winter weather and can be used to accessorize your home as well. Again, a variety of crafting skills can be brought in to play to make these items.

Patchwork throws and blankets are a great used of odd pieces of fabric and can be made to match any room in the house. Snuggle up in the bedroom with a pastel-colored cover, cozy down in front of the TV in a blanket made from neutral tones, or chill out in the den under a zany patchwork of neon brights. Crochet afghan blankets are really in vogue at the moment and are useful throughout the year, keeping chills at bay on chilly summer evenings as well as in the winter knitted blankets can be created from fine 3-ply yarn to keep baby warm, warm double-knitting for lap blankets or throws, and from squares you have knitted from oddments for the bedroom.

Quilting adds an extra dimension to any blanket or throw, and really adds warmth. Decide how warm you want to be, and choose an appropriate weight. A super embroidered throw can be made from a blanket. Simply buy a plain blanket and blanket stitch around the outside in a contrasting shade of thread. Then embroider whatever design you like onto it. To make the throw warmer, sew two or three blankets together. Tie them off at intervals to keep the layers together.

Winter Crafts To Keep You Warm

Rugs

Rugs can really warm up a home, and handmade rugs a real delight. Rugs can be hooked or knotted from wool or mixed-fiber yarns, or made from rags. Rag rugs can be hooked in the same way as wool rugs, using Hessian backing, or can be tacked into lengths and plaited before being sewn into a round rug.

Rugs can be made from recycled materials, in which case they will consist of a tapestry of interwoven colors, or can be made from new materials, in which case you will be able to choose which colors will suit your décor.

Winter Crafts To Keep You Warm

Draught Excluders

One of the main ways of staying warm is to make sure that there are no draughts in your home. These days, vintage kitsch is very much in vogue, and the snake or ‘sausage dog’ draught excluders that were once so popular are now available in many trendy stores.

Make your own draught excluder from two lengths of fabric sewn together and stuffed. Add ears, legs, stripes, etc to make it into an animal shape for a fun gift or keepsake.

Many crafts will help you to create beautiful items that will add beauty to your home and keep you warm as well this winter.

Happy crafting!