And The Stockings Were Hung...

I hope you enjoyed the stocking holder tutorial from Kerri on Wednesday...now it's time to make some stockings to go with them!

The best part about doing this blog with my sister-in-law is that we both get to share with you our individual creations, and today (like Monday) is one of them. 
We both made different stockings and here they are...

(Note: this is a long one, so be sure to scroll all the way down to see the whole post!)

Julie First.....
I do have to say that Christmas is my favorite time of the year and these were fairly easy stockings to make, once I figured out how to put the cuffs on them.

The photo on the right is one of my current stockings (my mom bought these for us about 17-18 years ago)...I absolutely love them, but now I have blues and browns in my living room for Christmas and I wanted a change.  This is the stocking that I used for the pattern to cut my new stockings.  

For the stockings you will need:

Drop cloth (I got mine at Lowes for $10.98)

Burlap 

Ribbons/Trims 

Chip board letters (Hobby Lobby .99 each)

Scrapbook paper (colors to match your decor)

Modge Podge

Distress Ink

To make the stockings:

Cut out the stockings 

Sew them together (right sides together)

Snip the seam allowance where there is a curve in the stocking 

(I forgot to take a picture of this)

Turn right side out

Pin cuff to the inside of the stocking & sew 

(this will leave a finished seam on the inside of the stocking)

Embellish them how you want them!

For the letters:
Use modge podge and brush it on the letter.  The paper has to be laid on top of the letter (the side of the paper you want faces up, because that is the side that will show).  Let the modge podge dry, then cut the excess paper off (see bottom left photo).  Sand the edges and distress them.  
Simple...right?

To Embellish the Stockings:
I used hot glue to attach all of the ribbon and I tied the curly ribbon around the loop.
At first I only had the letters for each stocking, but since both of my boy's names start with a 'T' I thought I should put our names on each stocking.  I used my tea dyed tags and stamped our names on them and then I hot glued a rusted jingle bell on each tag.  To hang the name tag on the stocking, I used  a rusted safety pin.  I thought this added to the character of each stocking.  For all of the guy's stockings I added a plain bow and for each of the girl's stockings I added the curly ribbon.  
This was so simple, all you do is wrap the ribbon around a dowel (secure it with clothes pins) and bake it in an oven for 20 minutes at 250.  
Yes, it was that simple!

Like I said earlier...the hardest part was figuring out how to attach the cuff 
(so the seam was finished when you turned it over the stocking). 
They really are as easy as that!
My hope is that you will make these stockings and put your own twist on them.
Happy creating!
~Julie

P.S.  Here are a few snippets of the stockings that my friend Tabatha made (top photo) and the bottom photo is of the stockings I helped my friend (Ann) embellish.  She bought her stockings and then we added the trim, tags, and ribbon.  This may give you some other ideas for your stockings.

Kerri's Turn...
I had made this socking last year for my daughter when I was just learning to sew and I would have to say I could not have done with without my mom walking me through it, but don't be discouraged!!!  It was much easier this year and I took pictures with would have helped me last year.  I hope they help you.

I saw this Amy Butler stocking and thought with was the cutes thing!  I wanted to do colors that matched what I was decorating with last year (the maroon/red), and I found cute reindeer fabric in the kids area of JoAnn's.

Here are my pictures to go with the instructions:

Step 2: Cut out your pieces

Step 2C & D - Cutting your lining...notice they are shorter than the felt

Step 2E: Cut your trim

Step 3: Sew your lining together. This was a tricky part because you need to remember the finished stocking has raw edges, so you DO want to sew your lining right sides together! Took me a bit to wrap my head around that!

Step 4: Making your tab

Step 5A: Pinning the lining to one stocking panel

Step 5B: Placing your Tab in the right spot

Step 5C: Sewing your lining to one stocking panel

Step 5D: Attaching the other stocking panel

Step 5D-E: Sewing the lining to the other stocking panel

Step 5F: Sewing the stocking panels together

Step 7A & B: Adding your trim. Every time I made these stockings, my trim was always longer that the folded piece of stocking, so I pinned starting on the outside and working into the middle to create a ruffle!  Why not?!

Final step for me: Trimming it up. No matter how good I cut my pieces, they never were a perfect match, so I just trimmed up the stocking to make all the edges even...shhh, don't tell anyone that there are fixable mistakes in sewing!!!

And there you have it!  Two cute stockings.  My daughter's has the ball-fringe, but since I made it before we started this blog, I didn't take pictures of that step, but it's pretty easy to understand.

I'm thinking of adding something to them...a bow maybe. What do you think I should add?

Happy sewing!

~ Kerri