The Brazen Dame: Christmas Stockings

Look, look! Pretty Christmas stockings!

I love how these turned out. I think they're pretty, traditional, but also modern in their simplicity. Plus, I already had the fabric! So, buy the trimmings and I'm all set!

You could really use any fabric at all for these. I had some indoor red canvas type fabric hanging around from an old sewing project. I also had some white cotton fabric from a set of old sheets that I used for lining. My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of them to make pillow cases. Well, I've made quiet a few pillow cases (they're so fast on a serger - have I sung the praises of my serger yet?) and had plenty left over.

So, first I ironed that fabric. Of course, it was already pre-washed and dried.

I made myself a template for the stocking. I just taped together three pieces of paper and drew it out free hand. I love having the ability to choose my own shape.

Now, I'm super lazy, so I don't usually use pins for placement when sewing. In fact, I didn't use any pins at all for this project. I have no patience. I just laid out the template and traced around it with a pen. In my opinion, all of this hullabaloo about erasable/vanishing ink is nonsense for this kind of thing. None of those lines will ever show. Ever. So use whatever you have. Not a big deal here.

Of course, I tried to place the template in such a way that I would conserve the most fabric possible. Then, I cut out my shapes. Don't forget that you'll need two for each stocking! Ha. Do the same for the lining.

Once you're finished cutting them out, you'll need to stitch each one together. Since they're Christmas stockings and don't have to fit any bodies, you can choose whatever seam width you're comfortable with on the machine. Just make sure to use the same one consistently so things are uniform.

Then, clip your curves. It makes turning your stockings so much easier! Of course, you won't be turning the linings. They're going to be plopped right down inside your turned red ones. So, I guess it's up to you whether you want to clip them. I didn't think it mattered. I didn't clip them. My hands said no. I'm sure my grandma would slap me.

Okay, so we know the linings fit inside. But before sewing them in place, we get to do the fun part. Trimmings! Lace and ribbon and bows and other pretty things! I gathered all the ribbon I would need and measured it to fit around the stocking. Of course, trimmings could have been done before the stockings were sewn together, but this way made it so much easier for me to see exactly where things were going in order to line them up. So, that's what I did.

I found these great snowflake buttons at Joann and the initial charms at Walmart. The awesome thing is that the charms actually fit through the button shank! They dangle and sparkle and please me very much.

I kind of laid out the way that I wanted the ribbon to look on the stocking. Though the thin silver ribbon can be seen in the plans, it didn't make the cut. Just couldn't cut it. Didn't look right. That is all.

Here are all of the trimmings laid out. The top shorter ribbons will be looped (as seen on the far right) in order to hang the stockings. I also ironed flat the ribbon at the bottom. That stuff had a crazy attitude after being wound so tightly for so long. So, I hit it with heat. And it worked. Also, because I wanted to add some more interest and texture to the white ribbon, I sewed thin colored ribbon on top of the white (silver and red), so it was all attached and ready before I began stitching it to the stocking. You could, of course, use whatever decorations you want!

I measured with a ruler where I wanted the lowest ribbon to be sewn. I liked the placement at three inches.

I went ahead and marked around each stocking at three inches down. Then, I sewed around my ribbons, simply folding the ends as I finished and securing them with a back stitch.

When I was finished with the lower ribbons, it was time to stuff the lining. Put your fingers down in the toes and make sure that your curves are all matching up. Since I used a template, they all fit really nicely. I decided to use the top ribbon as a binding. This way, I didn't have to finish and hem the top. So much easier. So much lazier. So me. I did iron the ribbons for this binding in half, long ways. This made them so much easier to handle and was really necessary. Lastly, I folded the short ribbon into a loop and sewed it on to the side where I wanted the stocking to hang. I sewed a nice, strong rectangle to secure that guy in place. Why? To hold lots of nice, heavy stocking stuffers. For me, of course. Wouldn't want someone to have to consider weight when picking me a gift....