New Christmas Stockings: I can sew!

Don't be alarmed when I tell you that I made new stockings for my family this past week.

That's right, I made them. Me, baby. Me. I can sew! Well, sort of. Okay not really. But this was really easy and anybody could do it.

I love them! I haven't added any embellishments other than the cute pom-poms and I might do that in the future, but for now I'm just glad I made it out the other side alive and I have real, live stockings in my house.

Even as cute as our old ones were, it bugged me that they didn't match:

After I read this post at Remodelaholic about making stockings from old sweaters, I was hooked.

I dragged my kids to a local thrift store, bribed them with hamburgers for good behavior and found a few great inexpensive sweaters that were just dying to be cut up.

Using an old cheerio box I drew and cut out a template for these new stockings. I started with my childhood stocking because I really liked its shape. Then I improved it a tad; for example, I made the toe a teensy bit bigger to better accommodate an orange.

I turned my sweaters inside out and traced the template, making sure the top of the stocking lined up with the thick band knit along the bottom of each sweater.

Next I pinned the stockings (yeah, I pinned them like a mad man -- I don't know how to sew... is that too many pins? The more the better, I say.) and cut them out.

 

I sewed using Remodelaholic Cassity's instructions - low tension, long stitch length. Thank goodness for people who know what they're doing. Sure, those instructions make sense, but would I have thought of those settings myself without help? Heck no.

The one thing I didn't see in the original tutorial that I wanted to add was a tab to hang the stockings from. I wanted it to match the stocking, and goodness knows I can't knit (are you crazy?) so I started to think about where I could find more material from the stockings. I didn't want it to unravel and I didn't want to have to go to the trouble of sewing then flipping a skinny little piece of sweater right side out.

My solution? I discovered that all the "extras" on the sweaters (trim around collar, button placards) were separately knit and then joined to the body of the sweater. So if I was really careful, I could actually cut the sweater away from these trim pieces without risking any unraveling. Brilliant!

My partially deconstructed button placard:

And here's another photo of the magic happening on the red sweater's collar:

These pieces were thin enough to loop over and sew -- voilà, tabs to hang the stockings from!

Like I said, I might go back and add fun embellishments to them after I recover from this sewing experience. I maxed out my crafty quota for a while I think. It's so out of character for me. Though I did have enough time and energy to add a couple pom-poms to the red cable knit stockings -- you know how I feel about pom-poms... I'm a fan.

(See how I made those little pom-pom decorations here...)

These stockings were pretty easy to throw together, even considering my limited skills. I even made a miniature pet version!

What do you think?

Sharing this at:

Remodelaholic

Under the Table and Dreaming

The DIY Show Off

Centsational Girl

House of Grace

Hope Studios

The CSI Project

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Busy as a Bee in Paris

Shanty 2 Chic

Someday Crafts
Finding Fabulous
The Shabby Nest