Thursday 15 December 2011

A first Christmas stocking



I had intended to buy my baby a beautiful handmade Christmas stocking for her first Christmas. Etsy has some lovely ones. But,
having been on mat leave, I couldn't quite justify the expense. So, this year, I made an interim stocking to last her until I can go out and buy the truly beautiful one.

To begin, I hunted for old scraps of fabric. I had intended to make a hessian stocking but the hessian I bought was far too loose and simply frayed apart when I cut it. Instead, I found a pile of calico that I had left over from an earlier project. I also found some scraps of blue and pink strawberry fabric, which I had used to cover a canvas for my baby's wall. As we call her our 'strawberry girl', it seemed appropriate for her stocking. Finally, I picked up a snow blanket in the pound shop, and used a piece of white felt for the hook.

Using some cardboard, I drew a stocking shape and cut it out, then did the same with two pieces of calico. Before I stitched them together, I cut out a variety of Christmassy shapes in both colours of the fabric, then made toe and heel patches that were roughly the same size. I used interfacing to stick the pieces onto the calico stocking sides. Using my sewing machine, I used a 0.5 length, 5 width zig-zag stitch to trace each piece in corresponding colour.

After that, I sewed the two pieces together inside out, then added the snow blanked cuff. Finally, I added a hook made of white felt (felt doesn't need hemming).

Et voila, a useable stocking for my little girl's first Christmas.