How To Make A Christmas Stocking

What you will need:

A large sheet of paper to draw your stocking template on to (I used newspaper)

Enough fabric to fit two of you stocking templates on to (front and back)

Thread to match your fabric

Pins

Sewing machine, although this can be sewn entirely by hand

Some faux fur trim (enough to go the whole way around the top of your sewn stocking)

2 squares of felt ( the size of your felt will depend on how big you want your initial to be)

Sequins

Beads

White thread

Needle

How To Make A Christmas Stocking

So, as my two babies continue to grow inside my tummy and I continue to constantly pick myself up off of the floor after such an enormous, heartwarming show of kindness at our good news things are still moving on apace here at the house.

We continue to decorate most inches of space for Christmas and are still having flashes of inspiration at the oddest times. Plans get thrown out of the window and we scrap certain projects in favour of others and today’s post was one of those moments.

I’ll now hand over to Jodie, whose project this is. I hope you love it as much as I do. I know I plan on making two of these myself!

Jodie.

I mentioned to Cherry recently that I really wanted to make a Christmas stocking this year for each of my girls. I envisioned these stockings coming out year after year and that they would really grow to mean something special to them. I could see the stockings hanging on either side of the fireplace in the run up to Christmas and then stuffed with presents come Christmas Day.

That was my plan.

Luckily Cherry thought this was a great idea and so set me to work straight away. Ha!

Some of the stockings you see in the shops are somewhat on the small side, but I wanted my stockings to be BIG (mine measure approx 60cm x 35cm)!

I set about drawing up a template, one that I would then draw around on to my chosen fabric. I used newspaper to draw my stocking template.
I chose some lovely mushroom and duck egg blue upholstery fabric. The decision to use this type of fabric was made because I wanted the stockings to be gorgeous but hard-wearing enough to survive many Christmases to come.

Once I had drawn my stocking template (front and back) onto the fabric I cut the shapes out and pinned them together inside out as the fabric I was using was not reversible.

Tip: If you are using fabric that is not reversible, you will need to draw around the stocking shape first with the boot toe facing towards your left and then flip the stocking template over so the boot toe faces to right. When the templates are then cut out the two correct sides of the stocking (fabric) will marry up correctly.

I then double hemmed the top (opening) of both pieces of the stocking. This is to ensure that the opening of the stocking will not fray but will also make it stronger

To make the hanging tag for the stocking I cut a small piece of fabric measuring 14 cm and hemmed either side of it. Your hanging tag may be a different size to mine as it will depend on the size of your stocking.
I machined one end of the tag to the inside of the top left hand side of the stocking (so you have the toe pointing to the right when you look at it)

I then machined the other end of the tag to the other side of the inside of the stocking

For the stocking’s trim, I decided to keep it quite traditional so I used a faux fur Santa trim

I measured out enough fur trim to be wrapped around the top of the stocking and cut the width of the trim to measure approx 32cm (again, your trim size will differ, depending on the size of your stocking)

I folded the fur trim over length-ways, (so the fur was inside) pinned in place and machined the edge closed as well as one of the ends, leaving the other end open

I then turned fabric fur channel back the right way, leaving one end open still
I attached the fur trim by hand sewing it to the top of the stocking opening. As you will have already double hemmed the top (opening) of the stocking, you should be able to sew the fur trim onto the side of the double hem without it looking too messy.

When you have attached the top of the fur trim on to the top of the stocking, continue to hand sew the sides of the trim together, thus sealing the fur channel you have created

To personalise each of my stockings I used the first name initial of each of my girls & I chose some turquoise blue felt which complemented the duck-egg-blue fabric

I used some card to draw and cut out a ‘T’ and a ‘D’
When I was happy with the size and shape of each letter I drew around the cardboard templates onto the turquoise felt and cut the letters out of the fabric

To decorate the letters I used some pearlised sequins and beads. Placing the sequin nearest to the fabric and the bead on top of the sequin I sewed them together on top of each other to give more of a sparkly effect (and you have to have a bit of sparkle at Christmas!)
By sewing the sequins and beads on all the way around the edges of the letters, I felt it gave them more definition and finished them off perfectly