Reusable Christmas Crackers

Cut down on the waste, but not the fun, with these reusable fabric Christmas crackers.

Materials

(materials below are for each cracker, multiply by the amount of crackers you want to make)

• Two pieces of 17.5 x 20cm fabric of your choice – cotton is the easiest to use
• Two pieces of 15.5 x 7cm stiff interfacing (eg. bag batting)  
• Matching thread
• Two pieces of about trim to decorate the edges, about 18 or 20cm long
• One piece of stretchy 2cm-wide (at least) trim for the centre, about 18 cm long
• 20cm of hook and loop tape, try to colour match with the fabric you’re using for the cracker if you can
• 1m of string or ribbon to tie
  
  

Equipment

• Rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mat
• Sewing machine
• Sewing thread
• Pressing agent – optional
• Basting spray or glue stick
• Iron
• Hot glue gun
  
  

How to

Step 1

Wash and press your fabric.

Tip: you can apply a pressing agent, spray starch or fabric stiffener to get a much better result from your fabric in the project. 

Step 2

Cut the batting pieces and fabric to the sizes specified.

Tip: you can use scissors, but you will get a much cleaner cut if you use a rotary blade, ruler and cutting mat. For an even more professional finish you can use the ScanNCut DX with the rotary blade and low tack mat. You will need to create the cutting shapes in the ScanNCut yourself.

Step 3

Place the batting on the wrong side of one fabric piece, leaving 1 cm on three sides and 12cm on the fourth side (see video for exact placement)

Tip: if you choose to use basting spray, mark the position out, apply spray and glue batting in place

Step 4

Press a 1cm hem all around. Use the glue stick to keep this in place.

Step 5

Sew the hem down around all the edges. Add the trim to the end furthest from the batting.

Step 6

Repeat with the other piece of fabric and batting, so you have two matching pieces.

Step 7

On one of the pieces of fabric, add the loop tape on the edge furthest away from the trimmed edge. Trim to 5mm from folded edge and sew in securely.

Tip: watch the video above to help with placement.

Step 8

On the other piece of fabric, add hook side of tape with hooks (again on the furthest side from the trimmed edge). Place the hooks so they are facing the batting but are overlapping the hem at the top of the top edge by about 1cm (so the loops are sticking over the edge a little and can catch the hooks on the other side). Trim to about 7mm from sides and sew in securely.

Tip: watch the video above to help with placement.

Step 9

Using the hot glue gun, glue the long sides of each piece of fabric together to form a tube. The tube created from the fabric that has the hook side of the tape will be slightly smaller. Insert the hook side into the second tube. The tape will interlock and keep the cracker closed.

Step 10

Tie a ribbon or cord around at each end where the batting ends (so the fabric is softer).

Step 11

Glue a decoration or some trim over the join in the centre – glue only on the loop side. Tidy the ends of the trim by folding them over to the wrong side and glue in place.

Step 12

Now all you need to do is fill your crackers and let the fun begin!

If you want some more cracking Christmas projects, then head over to our festive projects page. We have a wonky star quilt, a quilted advent calendar, ScanNCut stars, a massive in-the-hoop Father Christmas and much more!