DIY Christmas Stockings

As this year will be Emma's first Christmas I decided to try my hand at sewing her a Christmas stocking. I initially bought fabric at Joann's I thought was fun and something that she would enjoy as she grew up, i.e. nothing too childish since I wanted her stocking to be something she used for many years. After making the stocking I decided I wanted it to be slightly larger so it was back to the drawing board. But instead of beginning again with what was left over of the fabric Brian claimed that stocking as his own so I had to find new fabric for Emma's stocking AND now I had to make stockings for the WHOLE family. But it all worked out because I found really cute Christmas bird fabric I liked even better for Emma on QuiltHome.com. For some reason birds make me think of Emma, like Snow White or something :o)

And here you can see how all our stockings turned out. Most of the fabric I bought at Joann's but the fabric for Emma's and the cuff on Bailey the cat's came from QuiltHome.com. And since we don't have a mantel, the knobs on my desk will have to do for hanging.

To make the stockings I found a tutorial online along with a pattern on the Fabric Worm blog. The following photos are of the initial stocking that is now Brian's. I printed and cut out the pattern and then laid it out the in the approximate size I wanted.

Then I filled in the gap with a sheet of paper:

And then cut the addition to follow the curve of the stocking, making the top piece a little wider than the original pattern:

For Emma's stocking I not only made it longer as shown in the pictures above but also about an inch wider on each side.

Here is a picture of the fabrics I used. The batting I had on hand from another project I never got around to and an off-white muslin for the lining (I forgot to add the muslin for the picture, but it's just a plain fabric).

I then cut two stocking shapes out of each of following: the red and green Christmas fabric (so the two good sides would have toes pointing in opposite directions), the muslin lining, and the batting.

I then sandwiched the Christmas fabric, right sides together, between two batting pieces and pinned everything into place. Next I sewed the pieces together with a 1/2 inch seem allowance leaving the top of the stocking open.

After I finished sewing the batting to the Christmas fabric I trimmed some of the excess batting around the toe and heel for easier turning of the stocking right-side out. Then I pinned the lining pieces together and sewed them with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Brian took an action-shot of me actually sewing the lining together at this point.

Leaving the seam on the outside of the lining (no turning inside out), I then stuffed the lining into the stocking between the two pieces of batting (so the seam is now hidden).

For the cuff, I wanted it to be a little longer than what the tutorial called for so I measured the fabric to the desired length.

I then cut batting to that length and followed the instructions on the Fabric Worm tutorial by sewing the short sides of the dot fabric together with the batting along half.

I then folded the dot fabric down around the batting so the batting was sandwiched between the folded dot fabric. (The Fabric Worm tutorial explains this a bit more clearly with pictures.) The cuff was then stuffed into the stocking with the raw edges of all fabric, lining, batting at the top. I had to adjust the seam allowance on the cuff a couple times before it would fit flat in the stocking without any bulges. I also added a loop of green ribbon for hanging, placing the ribbon loop-side in to the stocking between the lining and cuff fabrics along the back seam of the stocking.

I then sewed all the pieces together. At this point the stocking was very thick so make sure you are using a sharp needle on your sewing machine. My needle was a bit old so had a hard time piercing all layers of the fabric (the needle actually bent and I had to replace it!). After everything is sewn together, flip the cuff out and fold it over the stocking and it is ready for hanging.

I bought some iron-on embroidered letters to add names to all our stockings. The larger letters for Emma's name were individually purchased from Joann's and the smaller letters for "Mom", "Dad", and "Bailey" came from Michael's on an alphabet sheet of letters.