Making An Xmas Gift For My Daughter - Xmas 2025

Most years, I try to make a gift for my daughter LB, mainly just to put love into at least one of her gifts at Xmas. This year, she wanted me to make her a pouffe, to rest her feet on when she's sat at her desk in her bedroom.  She's currently propping her feet on a cushion, but it's not really high enough.

I offered to make her a pouffe made from denim. My reason for this in part that I had some denim from some dungarees I took apart and wanted to use it up. The fabric I had, however, wasn't enough to complete the project and I wanted to use denims of different colours, to add visual interest. I therefore needed to buy some jeans from charity shops to proceed with the project.

I got lucky on a visit to Hull in November and managed to procure 3 pairs of jeans for the princely sum of £2 each. I got a light denim, a darker denim and a black denim pair. I also bought almost a half metre of very dark denim from Boyes, whilst I was there too. This, added to the dungaree denim and some khaki denim that I'd bought at the Knit and Stitch show for £3, gave me plenty to work with.

I decided that I was going to make each side of the pouffe in a different style, but all of them would be made from patched together bits of denim. I have posted already about how some of them turned out, but here are the pictures again:

I then left it for a week or so. I got busy putting up decorations and doing a bit of cleaning around the house. On Sunday last, however,  I decided to get it out again. Time was passing quickly and I was worried that I wouldn't get it finished in time for Xmas.

I added some jeans pockets to one of the side panels for decoration and then made up the final bottom panel which needed a zip inserting, so that the stuffing could be taken out and the cover washed if necessary. This came together okay, although I did make a few errors putting in the zip and had to correct them. I then went on to sew all the sides and the top and bottom together. It was a bit tricky, but I managed to get them all sewn together and the seams trimmed up on Sunday afternoon, leaving just the stuffing to figure out.

I wanted to create a lining for the stuffing, from an old pillow case, as this would contain all the small scraps I was using as stuffing. I'd collected them over the months, chopping up any scrap fabric that were unusable and this was the perfect project to use it all up. I didn't have enough scraps for this project though, so I had to add a pillow or two and a fleece blanket to make up the extra stuffing I needed.

Eventually, I got it all put together. It's not perfect, but I was pleased enough with the outcome, although the stuffing is not very evenly distributed. I may work on that before I actually give it to her. Here are a few pictures:

I think it probably cost little more than £10 in total to make, although it did take quite a few hours, but then that is the whole point. Taking time out of my day to make something special that she needed and would use. I hope she'll like it anyway.

At my request, LB is making something for me this Xmas. She's crocheting me a nativity scene, starting with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. I'm looking forward to receiving this and it becoming a mainstay in my Xmas decorations. I'm hoping a donkey, an angel and a few kings too eventually. Fingers crossed!

Have you been making anything for anyone this Xmas?