Homemade Stockings Hung by the Chimney with Care

We made these stockings a week ago, but it has taken me this long to get a somewhat decent picture during the 10 minute window per day where the sunlight actually falls on our mantel. I'm still not entirely satisfied with it, but it will do.

This was our first family craft project, and I hope it will become a tradition. Sam and I each made our own stocking using a paper template that I drew. The mini stocking for Sigmund uses the same template, but I shortened it a bit. The whole thing only took about an hour and a half to complete, and I think they turned out amazing.

My stocking was made using some black and green knit fabric that I bought way too much of. It is lined on the inside with a cool burberry print, and I used a second layer of the knit fabric as batting to make it nice and thick like a stocking oughta be.

Sigmund's stocking is made from fabrics in the Perfect Pitch collection by Dan Morris. It is lined with thick black and green knit. His name ended up being very difficult to read because of the pattern on the red band, but luckily he can't read anyway. He will know it is his because it's the only one that smells like catnip.

The outside of Sam's stocking is also from the musical themed set of fabrics. It's lined on the inside with the burberry print, and has a layer of knit fabric inside as batting.

To construct the main part of the stocking, we cut out 2 copies of the stocking template from the outside fabric, the batting fabric, and the inside lining. We sewed the outside and batting together, turned them inside out, and the stuffed the lining inside. To finish them up, we sewed a band on the inside and turned it out to hide all of the seams and give us a nice place to write our names. During this step, we added a ribbon between the band and the lining for hanging them up.

These stocking are in fact the only Christmas decoration that we'll be putting up this year. I'm really proud of how they turned out. Making them was a fun family activity, and I look forward to putting a treat inside.