Simple Christmas Stockings

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How to make your own Christmas stocking.

A couple of weeks ago my cousin approached me about helping her make some small Christmas stockings for her daughter’s French family. Bria is spending a year in France as an au pere and her mom thought it would be fun for Bria’s two French children to experience a small part of an American Christmas, the Christmas stocking. So we perused my way too large stash of fabrics and came up with three different fabrics to use. Of course we had to make one for Bria as well.
 
What to do:
So we taped 4 pieces of paper together and drew the size we wanted to make. We didn’t bother with ¼ seam lines because the overall dimension wasn’t that important. We added a heel, toe and cuff to the stocking for some added interest. 




We cut out the stocking shape and then traced the heel, toe and cuff on another piece of paper and cut out those shapes.






We pinned the paper pattern pieces to the fabrics we chose, cutting out 2 stockings and just one set of the heel, toe and cuff.  We also cut out 2 stocking pieces from a fabric to use as the lining of the stockings.









We used Wonder Under to attach the accent fabrics to the front of the stocking and then used a zig zag stich to secure the accent pieces.



Once that was done we placed the one of the stockings right side to the right side of the lining and sewed the top seam only.  And then sewed the other set.



We pressed the seam toward the lining and then placed the right sides of the 2 sets together.



Starting at the heel, we sewed around the entire perimeter ending at the base of the toe, leaving an opening on the flat part of the sock for turning.




Before turning the stocking inside out, we cut v-shaped notches on the outward curves and made cut lines on the inward curves.  We then turned the stocking inside out, pressed the seams and pressed the open seam allowance at the bottom of the stocking.  We top stitched the opening shut, inserted the liner into the stocking and voila! a Christmas stocking.  We sewed a cute red ribbon with white polka dots to the top of the stocking to use as a hanger.



If you wanted to get a little fancier, you could appliqué a Christmas tree, a wreath or any other decoration you wanted on the front of the stocking.  Ours were pretty small and we needed them completed quickly so we decided simpler was better.



Kathryn and Dash, the women behind the Yankee Crafty B*tch blog [2], bring you the best in the world of crafts, food, sewing and gardens — all on the resourceful Yankee budget. So kick back, check out their posts, and get your craft on.