A few weeks ago I was doing my usual breeze through catalogs while the hubs was watching some sporting event on TV. I was looking at the Ballard Designs holiday catalog when ESPN hubs said he would love it if I could make these:
Neither of us were loving the animal print trimming the stockings. I loved the whimsy concept but had to take it a step further with a little "fler" twist!
My first step was to create a pattern. I used old, not-so cute wrapping paper to free hand our design. I then traced it onto flannel material with my chalk pen. Since the pattern was the actual size of what I wanted it to look like finished, I cut about 1/2 inch from the outline and added about 4 inches to the top to be the area where my stocking cuff would be.
I used several tutorials to help me.
The main tutorial I used is HERE.
Now that you have your flannel (front) side template cut out you want to cut out the backside of your stocking. Put your right sides together and cut out the backing fabric.
Next I made the stocking lining. The lining is really nice because it adds some weight to the stocking and less flimsy. To cut out your lining. Have your lining fabric wrong sides together, place your template on top and cut your lining out.
You should have both the front/back of your stocking plus your lining cut out. I then used my Silhoutte SD and cut out white flannel circles with the Clean Cut Nonsewable Interfacing (also from Silhoutte). Lay your circles out and juggle them around till you find the layout you like. Make sure you trim edges if your circle hangs over your stocking front (notice the trimmed dot around heel). Next you want to iron those bad boys on! The packaging said just 8 seconds but I think I might have overdone it out of fear they'd fall off!!! LOL I think 8 seconds would have been fine....ha!
Time to add the pom poms! I just love these little guys. What you want to do is take the front/back of the main stocking and front/back of your stocking lining and lay them right sides down (note my wrong sides showing on top in picture). Lay your pom pom strand (bought those snow puffs at Joann's) across the top and cut proper length. You will cut 2 strands (one for main stocking and one for the lining so that you pom pom embellishments go around the whole cuff of your whimsy stocking). IMPORTANT: Do not have a pom pom exactly at the edges because you will have to sew here. I learned this the hard time with our red stocking. Try to get as much webbing without the pom pom on your edges to make sewing easier.
Now place your pom pom strand sandwiched between the right sides of your main stocking fabric top edges and pin. The wrong sides should be on the outside. I found that leaving the little knots of the pom pom strand out a little made pinning easier and created just the right look when I turned our first stocking inside out. You will repeat this same step with your stocking lining fabric pieces.
Pinning this part is kind of a pain, but once you're done it should look like this. I pinned at each knot that I showed sticking out in the previous photo. Now you are going to sew.
I know the legit seam is wider than what I do but I just feel like that's a waste, so I did 1/4 inch seam and then sewed another line between the edge and my seam to add reinforcement because...well I really have no reason why. It just seemed like a good idea! ha! I bet there might be some pro-seamstresses gasping at my seam choice and reasonings...LOL! Do this for both your main and linings.
Iron your seams out. Cute eh?!?! So far so good. Hope this is making sense to ya!
Now we're going to put the right sides together of our main stocking and lining. Once placed together my fabric on the bottom in the picture will ultimately be my lining. I pinned all the way around, but in the lining (the bottom portion), I left about 4-5 inches open/unpinned so that I have a way to turn it inside out.
Now sew all the way round except where you left the opening unpinned. On the green flannel, I sewed along the original chalk markings I traced my wrapping paper template on.
Once your are done sewing, turn your stocking inside out and press your seams with an iron.
Before sewing your opening closed, take some fiberfill and stuff your stocking toe. If you don't your whimsy will look a little flimsy. IMPORTANT: when stuffing your toe, pull apart your stuffing so it's small sections of stuffing. This will give the finished stuffed toe less lumpy. If you pull off too big of chunks your stuffed stocking toe will look all bumpy and not smooth.
Once stuffed, you now going to stuff your lining into your main stocking. Once your lining is in place, fold over your cuff and press. Your stocking should look like this:
Press your cuff in place. For your hanging piece, I just hand stitched a piece of red ribbon I had into place.
YOU'RE DONE!!! Now run into your family room and hang it up to admire! I was so proud of my first stocking. Lots of help from the blog world pictures and tutorials, but feel like I put my own stamp on the design. ESPN hubs LOOOOVES his new stocking! I honestly think that's the best part...his excitement over it. He said he thought it was better than Ballard's and better than what he envisioned in his head. Oh that makes my heart melt!!! GAG right?!?! Seriously, the gifting is the best part!
So when I hung up the stocking I noticed it looking kinda wimpy. I found a post from one of my FAV blogs, POSITIVELY SPLENDID, where she had the same problem and shared her solution...GROCERY PLASTIC BAGS!!! She stuffed her completed stockings with plastic grocery bags. See the difference between the red stocking (stuffed with bags) and the green (whimpy whimpy...unstuffed).
They hang so nicely stuffed with those unused, take-up-space, mess up under your kitchen sink, plastic bags!
We love our new whimsy stockings! We added a bit of whimsy to our mantel this year too. The printable on the far right is FREE over at Today's Creative Blog.
I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and that it didn't confuse you too much. I highly suggest you look at the tutorial I worked from as she did an AWESOME job on hers. Made our stockings much easier than if I had tried on my own!
Melkam Gena!!!
(Merry Christmas in Amharic which is Ethiopia's main language)
xoxo & Ho! Ho! Ho!
fler
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