10 Small Gifts to Sew for Teenagers and Young Adults

Not every gift needs to be quilt-sized! Sometimes the best handmade gifts are the smallest.

It can sometimes be hard to think of a good handmade gift for a teenager or young adult. They don’t (much) play with toys. There are only so many quilts a young human reasonably needs. They’re too picky for you to be able to sew them cute clothes without pre-approval anymore.

SIGH!

But with some creative thinking, there are still plenty of small sewn gifts that a teenager would love to see in, say, their Easter basket, and a young adult would be thrilled to find in a college care package. You just have to think a little more strategically, and take their interests into account.

So don’t just pick any old thing from my go-to list of ideas here. Instead, think about the teenager or young adult that YOU are sewing for, specifically, and figure out what they would most like. Is it a scrunchie made from glow-in-the-dark bat fabric? A tea wallet that they can carry with them to work? You know them best, so whatever you decide, they’ll love it!

Cassette Pouch

If your teenagers and young adults are anything like mine, they don’t have any memory of ever having used a cassette player, but they’re still high-key fascinated by cassette tapes! You might have to tell them what these little pouches are meant to resemble, lol, but after that I promise they’ll LOVE them. If you’ve got a ribbon printer, you can even give them real album titles!

Coffee Cup Cozy

I know it seems like just one more thing to pack in case you need it, but I feel like disposable coffee cups can be drippy, and who needs that at the start of their day? I love that these cozies are reversible, so you can drip all down one side and still have a clean side to face outwards next time!

Hair Ties

Okay, the only reason why this is on the list of things to sew is that only a sewist is going to have fold-over elastic on hand, lol. Because actually, this project is completely no-sew! My favorite part is that FOE comes in an infinite variety of colors, so you should be able to match even the pickiest pallete.

Ice Cream Pint Cozy

The only stipulation is that if you’re going to give someone this, you’ve also got to give them ice cream! Or at least a gift card to purchase ice cream! This project is especially perfect for a young adult in their first apartment.

Key Fob

A key fob is the perfect solution for a teenager on the go. It’s also nice for holding a couple of keys that a young adult owns and doesn’t want to lose, but also doesn’t want to carry around all day every day, either. My two college students keep their home keys on key fobs tucked away in their dorm rooms, ready to grab when they’re coming back for a visit.

Quilt-As-You-Go Scrappy Bookmarks

The only bad part of this project is that these bookmarks are so quick and easy to make–and so cute!–that you’ll be tempted to tuck one into every care package, Easter basket, and Christmas stocking. Try to contain yourself, though, because young adults only need so many bookmarks!

Roll-up Pencil Holder

You probably imagine the travel colored pencil holder as more of a little kid thing, but there are tons of scenarios in which a teenager and young adult would also find having an organized set of colored pencils useful. Or you can switch it to hold highlighters, or their favorite drawing pens! The secret to making it a big-kid item instead of a little-kid item is the fabric choice. Instead of quilting cotton in a novelty pattern, choose something sophisticated that matches your big kid’s style.