16 Christmas sewing projects to sell at craft fairs

Small, giftable, quick-to-sew items suit a craft fair table: ornaments, scrunchies, zipper pouches, drawstring bags, needle books and gift bags. In the Sewzy app, 14 of the 16 projects below take 60 minutes or less, and many need only a fat quarter or scraps. You will find the time and size for each, a simple pricing method and a sew-by timeline for a December fair.

TL;DR

• Pick items that are small, easy to see from across a table and quick to sew. A short time per item keeps the price within reach.
• Price = materials + your time at an hourly rate + a small share of the table fee. A worked example below gives $22 for a Small zipper pouch.
• Cut everything first and sew in batches. The app times are for one item at a time, so batching can save time.
• Before you sell, check the license on the pattern page and the rules of the fair. In the US, items for children 12 and under need extra care.
• Count back from your fair date. For example, for a fair on Saturday, December 5, 2026, start five weeks ahead. Finish the last item a week early.

Want the full list? See 60 Christmas sewing projects with times and levels.

What sells at Christmas craft fairs?

This guide has no sales statistics, because no reliable public ranking of craft fair items exists for sewing, so use it as a checklist rather than a forecast. Items that suit a fair tend to share a few traits:

• Quick to sew, so a fair price still pays for your time.
• Easy to understand at a glance. A shopper walking past should see what it is.
• Giftable and small, so it fits in a bag or a stocking.
• Easy to make in multiples, so you can cut and sew a batch.

Which items actually sell depends on your fair and your town. Keep a tally on the first day and make more of what people pick up.

Which Christmas sewing projects can I sell?

The times below are the Sewzy app's estimates for one finished item. Open a pattern page for its full size and fabric details.

Small items you can sew in 30 minutes or less

• Elastic Bookmark. Quilting cotton scraps, linen or cork, stiff interfacing and ¾ inch elastic. It is the quickest item here, and a small price keeps it an easy add-on.
• Scrunchie. One 5 x 23 inch strip for the Regular size. Sell them as a set of three.
• Christmas Ornaments. They are stuffed and have a hanging loop. Make a dozen from scraps over a weekend.
• Puffy Wand Trio. A star, a heart and a moon. One fat quarter makes all three Large shapes. You also need a dowel and ribbons.
• Sleep Mask. A fat quarter of silk, satin or cotton makes the outer and lining. You need soft elastic for the strap.
• Drawstring Bag. Small needs ⅓ yard. Fill it with a candy cane or a bar of soap and it becomes a ready gift.
• Collar Bandana. The Classic and Scallop styles take about 30 minutes, and the Bow style takes 45 with the bow. One fat quarter covers the outer and the lining for Cat through L. Make the Bow style in plaid for Christmas. The full steps are in how to sew a dog bandana.

Giftable items that take 45 to 60 minutes

• Zipper Pouch. Small needs ¼ yard of outer and ¼ yard of lining, plus a 7 inch nylon coil zipper. It sells as a makeup bag, a pencil case or a cable organizer.
• Needle Book. One fat eighth of outer and one of lining makes 3 Small, 2 Medium or 1 Large. It uses felt pages and a button, and it suits anyone who sews.
• Wine and Gift Bags. Three sizes, including a tall Wine bag of 4½ x 16 inches. A buyer can reuse them as gift wrap.
• Cone Christmas Trees. Three sizes you can group on a table. The steps include a small pellet bag for weight, so you need stuffing and filler as well as fabric.
• Santa and Elf Hats. Four sizes, from Toddler to Adult L. You make the hat to a head measurement, so ask the buyer for it.
• Quilted Bow. It works as a gift topper, a wreath bow or a hair clip. The Mini needs 3 charm squares of each fabric, the Medium needs 2 layer-cake squares of each, and the Large needs 1 fat quarter of each.
• Bowl Cozy. Use 100 percent cotton fabric, cotton batting and cotton thread only, because polyester melts in the microwave. Say so on the tag.

Slower items to price higher

The Potholder (about 120 minutes) is a quilted pad with binding, made from 100 percent cotton fabric, lining and cotton batting. Do not state a heat rating for it on a tag or sign. The Reindeer Plush (about 180 minutes) is an intermediate pattern. Neither is quick, so make only a few, price them for the time they take and use them as the eye-catching pieces at the back of the table.

How do I price handmade sewing projects?

Use this formula: price = materials + (minutes ÷ 60 × your hourly rate) + a share of the table fee. Choose the hourly rate yourself, and write down your time honestly, including cutting and pressing. The numbers below are made-up examples to show the method, not market prices.

Take the Small Zipper Pouch, which the app lists at about 45 minutes. Say fabric costs $12 a yard.

If batch sewing brings your real time down to 30 minutes per pouch, your time cost drops to $8 and the price to $18. Round to a clean number, then compare it with similar handmade items at your fair or online. If the price feels too high for your fair, do not cut your hourly rate. Sew something quicker instead: a Scrunchie at about 15 minutes costs far less of your time than a pouch.

Keep your receipts and a note of what you sold. Rules on income and sales tax differ by country and state, so ask your local tax office if you are unsure.

How do I sew a lot of items quickly?

1. Choose four to six items, not sixteen. Repeating the same steps makes you faster.
2. Wash, dry and press all the fabric before you cut anything.
3. Cut one item at a time in bulk. Cut all the pouches, then all the scrunchies. Stack the pieces in labeled bags.
4. Sew in a line. Do the same seam on every piece before you move to the next step, without cutting the thread between pieces. Press in one session at the end.
5. Use up scraps. A fat eighth makes up to 3 Small needle books, and a fat quarter makes all three shapes of a Large puffy wand set.

How should I display handmade items at a craft fair?

• Use height. Stand the Cone Christmas Trees on a box and hang ornaments on a small tree or a branch.
• Show how it is used. Put a bookmark in a book, a scrunchie on a wrist or pencils in a pouch.
• Group by price, with a clear price on each group or tag.
• Bundle for gifts. A set of three scrunchies, or a Wine bag and a Drawstring Bag together, is easy to say yes to.

What should I check before I sell what I sew?

1. The pattern license. Check the license on the pattern page and read the Sewzy terms before you sell anything made from a pattern. At the time of writing, the terms describe the license as covering personal use and small-batch handmade sales of finished items, and they do not allow you to resell or share the pattern files. Patterns from other designers have their own licenses.
2. The fair's rules. Ask the organizer about table fees, handmade-only rules, application dates and whether you need insurance or a tax permit.
3. Children and pets. In the US, items made for children 12 and under (the Toddler and Kid hats, plush toys) are children's products: you need a Children's Product Certificate, and even small batch makers must have the small-parts rules checked by a third-party lab. See the Consumer Product Safety Commission's pages on small batch manufacturers and small parts. Pellet pouches and pom-poms are small parts: keep them off anything meant for young children. Outside the US, check your own country's rules. Do not sell a plush as safe for babies. For a Collar Bandana, add a tag that says it is decoration only and should come off when the pet is unsupervised.
4. Care labels. Say what the item is made of and how to wash it. For the Bowl Cozy, say it is 100 percent cotton. Do not claim a heat rating for the Potholder.

When should I finish sewing for a December fair?

Count back from your fair date. For example, for a fair on Saturday, December 5, 2026, start five weeks ahead. Work back from the fair date:

Here is a sample stock list with the app's times: 12 Classic ornaments (6 hours), 6 scrunchies (1½ hours), 4 zipper pouches (3 hours) and 3 bowl cozies (3 hours). That is 13½ hours in total, or about 4½ hours a week over the three weeks from sewing through finishing. Batching should bring the real time lower, but plan on the app's numbers to stay safe.

Make it with Sewzy

Sewzy is a sewing pattern app for iPhone, and each pattern includes every size, so you can sew a Small and a Large of the same item without buying anything extra. Print the letter-size PDF at home or take the A0 file to a copy shop. Use the step-by-step guide for each project, and watch the short how-to videos on many pattern pages for tricky steps.

Some of the patterns are free. For a fair table, the free ones include the Scrunchie, Drawstring Bag, Zipper Pouch, Bowl Cozy and Potholder. The ornaments, trees, hats and gift bags are Premium. See all the Christmas sewing patterns and the free sewing patterns. Get Sewzy on the App Store.

Free printable: add our free Christmas gift tags to your handmade gifts.