Last year I promised you a tutorial on these forever Christmas crackers, I made them a couple of years ago and they have been a total hit ever since. The family love that their cracker gifts are completely personalised - and much better quality than the usual tiny plastic stapler found in supermarket versions! And the kids love getting involved in writing the jokes and brainstorming ideas for gifts that are small enough to fit into the cardboard tubes.

A set of these would also make a ‘cracking’ (see what I did there), eco Christmas gift for a family, the re-useable crackers themselves would be a great gift, but you’ll also have the opportunity to personalise the contents of each cracker.

I have an old sewing machine - which I’m not very neat on! But these could be easily hand sewn too. When choosing the fabrics, I wanted to make the crackers suit whichever style of Christmas table I may be doing that year, so I used some vintage green velvet for one side, and some casual, neutral washed lined for the other. The velvet is great for a more formal, luxe table, and the linen suits a more relaxed, laid-back style.

To make the crackers, for each cracker, you’ll need:

- 2 Rectangles of fabric about 35cm 25cm
(make sure the rectangle wraps easily around the cardboard tube
- Needle and thread or a sewing machine
- Some pins to hold the fabric in place while sewing
- 1 cardboard tube
(toilet rolls, kitchen towel or postage tubes, depending on the size you’d like)
- Tissue paper and glue to cover the cardboard tube (optional)
- Christmas Cracker Bangs (optional)
- Ribbon or string to tie the ends (you can even change these up each year for a different look)
- Contents for the cracker, hat, joke, gift etc

These are very simple to make, the main bit of work is sewing around the rectangle and leaving a gap on the last side so that it forms a pouch, almost like a pillowcase, then turn the pouch inside out, tease out the corners with a pin (or push out from the inside with a pencil) , and sew the gap closed. Ironing he finished rectangle will make it look super neat and help to disguise any slightly wonky sewing!

Reversible Forever Christmas Crackers - A Video Tutorial