Lesley's Stocking Ornaments

This tutorial was provided by Lesley G (of Lesley and Libby fame.)

There are a number of booklets available with charts of mini-stockings or many small Christmas motifs will do just fine.

Photo 1

Pick yourself a design, doesn't even have to be Christmassy (see last photos too) pick your fabric and stitch, this one ended up being about 6 inches finished, I have done them smaller (see stockings at the last photo). I make a template from clear plastic* so that I can arranged it over the design. If you want to write on the back (as shown) then make sure that it is a mirror image. Draw around your template and cut out both pieces.



Photo2

Cut out 2 identical peices in your cotton fabric of choice.



Photo 3

Stitch each piece of fabric to your stitching - right sides together - as shown.



Photo 4

Put pieces together, aida to aida and cotton to cotton, put a loop of cord or ribbon on the inside at the top edge - you can see where my gold cord sticks out, this can be added at the end if you forget. Stitch around the edges leaving a gap in the cotton fabric at the bottom of the foot as shown by the pens- about 2inches. I use about a quarter inch seam



Photo 5

Clip 'vs' around all curves - this enables the seam to stay flat and rounded, be careful not to cut through your stitching.




Photo 6

Turn your stocking all the way through the gap at the bottom of the cotton fabric, do it slowly and carefully.




Photo7

You can either hand or machine stitch the gap in the cotton fabric - as shown by the pens - I just do it on the machine, no-one can see this unless they turn your stocking inside out!




Photo8

Push the cotton stocking into the aida stocking, I use the blunt rounded end of a point turner (as shown) though the blunt end of a pencil works just as well, try and get the seams to match up inside the stocking this way. Press with an iron.




Photo 9

Voila! Your stocking is done! Don't worry if its not to smooth and neat - your kids/grandkids won't see that, they will just be so happy with their stocking to put on the tree.




Photo 10

Some more of this years stockings, young Tristan wanted a black cat!






*Pinwheel's note - If you are making a lot of stockings, all the same size, you might choose to make your template from clear adhesive vinyl (also known as Mactac, Contact Paper, adhesive vinyl shelf paper, Fablon or sticky-back plastic). Then you could cut around the template and skip the drawing step. Though the adhesive vinyl gets less sticky as you reuse the template it will be sticky enough to reuse many times.