Jingle ALL the way! Nobody likes a half-assed jingler! - A simple Christmas stocking tutorial

It's Christmaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssss!!!!

 Well no, it's actually November, but in the crafting world November is actually quite late to start Christmas projects 😂 But this simple Christmas stocking project can be whipped up super quickly, I promise!

You will need:

0.5m of your outer fabric

0.5m of your inner fabric (I just used plain calico)

Matching thread

Scissors

Sewing machine or the patience to hand sew it!

Here’s what you need to do!

Draw out your basic stocking shape or just Google stocking template like I did 😂

Draw out a rectangle that is as wide as the top of your stocking and as tall as you want the cuff to be (mine is 18cm x 10cm)

Take your stocking template and cut out 2 of the outer fabric and 2 of the inner fabric

Take your cuff template and cut 2 on the fold of your outer fabric

I've shown the cuffs with one folded and one unfolded just so you can see it :)

Take 1 of your outer stocking pieces and pin it right sides together to one side of your cuff and pin 1 of your inner stocking pieces to the other side of your cuff with right sides together making sure that your stocking toes are both facing the same way. Sew them together, press your seams open and do the same for the other pieces.

Pin your pieces together with right sides facing ensuring that the seams at the cuff match up. Sew around the stocking ensuring that you leave a gap at the bottom of the inner stocking to turn them the right way out.

Don't forget to leave a gap!

How many pins is too many pins?

Trim your seam and turn the stocking the right way out through the gap in your lining. Fold the raw edges under and either zig zag stitch them together on your machine or if you’re feeling fancy, you could hand sew it closed using a ladder stitch.

I ain't fancy :)

Stuff your stocking lining into the outer shell and turn the cuff down.

Et voila! You now have a beautiful stocking to give as a gift to family and friends, donate to charity or just keep it for yourself (Mine has festive daschunds on it!)

Alternatively, if you love these stockings but have neither the time or the inclination to make one, then pop on over to my Etsy shop to buy one that’s already made!

The C Word (no not that one!)

The C word I mean is CHRISTMAS!! I personally love the holly jolliness of Christmas, but I do admit, it starts way too early in shops. However, in the world of craft, it is never too early for Christmas 🎅🎄 So a few months ago, Elephant in My Handbag posted about their new Christmas fabrics and I couldn't resist having a wee peek! I got a few different ones, some Christmas dachshunds, some Christmas pets (can you see a theme here?) and more importantly, some Christmas cats. Now the other two I had plans for some stockings etc, but the cats I wanted something fancy for myself, maybe a top or a bag or a SUPER FESTIVE SKIRT! Yes! My mind was made up, it was to be a skirt! I had a dig through my patterns and found the pattern for the first item of clothing I had ever made, the New Look 6004 skirt.

It's a super basic skirt with an elasticated waistband. Literally just 2 skirt pieces and a waistband casing, but I wanted extra wide elastic for this particular skirt so I skipped the casing and just stitched the elastic straight on to the top of the skirt.

I only bought a metre of the material, because I didn't want to buy loads without having a plan for it, so technically I didn't have enough to make the skirt, so I decided that since I was going to have an extra thick waistband, I could afford to shorten it a bit. So I folded the fabric in half so that it was 4 layers instead of 2 (you'll find out later why this was a bad idea) and laid my pattern piece down so I could see how much I had to take the paper piece up by and I was able to grade it out from the waist so that it was a bit fuller. Cut it out, gave it a couple of nice wee french seams and ta-da! I'd f*ucked it up. Since I had doubled over a very heavily patterned fabric, the cats on the back of the skirt were upside down!!

Hahahahaha!! Silly cats! What are you doing?

 As I didn't have any more fabric, I just had to live with it 😂😂 But here is the skirt from the front!

I wanted to make it even more festive so I used red satin bias binding and gold top stitch thread.

By now you're probably thinking that I'm all Christmassed out, you'd be wrong! I also finally completed the Doctor Who Christmas cross stitch by Capes and Crafts that I started about 4 or 5 years ago.

I also did a festive dachshund, but I didn't see a name on the printed pattern and I can't remember where I got it, so if it's your pattern, let me know and I'll credit you :)

 

 Phew! I think I am all Christmassed out now so I'll leave you with the usual costs and ratings.

Costs

•  1m of Cat fabric £15
• bias, thread and elastic - stash
• Doctor Who pattern £3
• Dachshund pattern - unknown, I can't even remember if it's a paid pattern.
• Embroidery thread - stash 

Difficulty Rating

• Skirt - 1/5 very easy to put together, just remember to keep your print the right way up!
• Cross Stitches - 1/5 both very easy, but so fab :)