It Looks Nothing Like Christmas

It’s finally summer in Seattle – it has been hovering around 80 degrees for the last week – so why am I thinking about Christmas?  Easy:  the decorations at Costco are already up!  It is terrifying to be walking around in shorts (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is)and seeing Halloween costumes and Christmas decorations.  It is still summer!  But the holidays are coming sooner than I think, and if I don’t want to stick myself in the same situation I was in last year, I better start planning now!

Last year I made fourteen Christmas stockings and hosted my first family Christmas.  The individual stockings were pretty easy – just felt with little applique pieces on them – but fourteen of them took a while.  Especially when each one is different!

 

So here is your shopping list for stockings:

1.  Felt for the body of the stockings – I used approximately 3 yards for all 14, so if you are making fewer you can get a lot less.

2.  You can buy a pattern for the stockings.  Just look through the pattern books and find one you like the shape of.  Or you can always use a big piece of paper (newspaper would work particularly well) and cut your own stocking shape to use as a template.

3. Different colors of felt for the applique – I just bought a pile of the small squares of felt in the craft section of Joanne Fabrics.  I tried to not use too many colors, and keep them somewhat consistent with the other colors in my home (I’ve since painted my living room, so we will see how they work this year!).

4.  A few yards of ball trim, or other trim, for the bottom of the “cuff” on the top of the stocking.

5.  Some coordinating felt for the “cuff” of the stocking (I cut these from some of the white felt squares I bought at Joanne – that is how I was sure that I could get a straight edge! I got two per square)

6.  Embroidery floss for the decorative stitching, and regular thread (we used white) for the machine stitching.

7.  Some cord or seam binding for the loops at the top. This could match the cuff, but it doesn’t have to.

Once I had all my materials, I set to work.  I cut out all the stocking shapes, as well as the cuffs.  My husband pinned the ball trim to the cuffs, then stitched it on a sewing machine.  I cut out little felt pieces for the animals and pinned them to the stocking fronts.  As you can see from the photos above, I used a really big and quite obvious stitch with the embroidery thread.  I love the way it turned out – but I have kind of a folk art style!  All of the animals looked like they’d already eaten Christmas dinner at least once.

Once I had the applique done, the rest was easy.  I sent each stocking downstairs to my husband where he pinned the top of the “cuff” to the top of the stocking (they are only on the front of the stocking, the back is solid burgundy) and did one machine stitch to attach the two together.  Then he pinned the front and back together with a piece of seam binding in the top, and stitched all the way around the outside, leaving just the top open for inserting goodies.  And voila!  Several days later, here they are -

I love they way they all turned out. Fourteen in all, each with a different animal representing the person whose stocking it was.  Mine is the bunny.  Everyone who came to Christmas last year contributed a handmade item to each stocking, so we all had a little collection of handmade goodies to go home with.   I know it is only the first of September, but I’m already thinking of what I am going to make for the stockings this year.  I made Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt from the Pioneer Woman’s recipe last year and those are going to be hard to beat!

I love this idea for a holiday gathering, and it isn’t just for Christmas.  Any type of holiday gathering could do something similar, you just need a vessel.  Baskets, buckets, bags, boxes – anything you can fill will work.  It is kind of like an unrestrained cookie exchange.  Almost everyone brought something edible – truffles, biscotti, homemade apple butter – except my stepfather, Rob Snyder, who brought us all little glass birds. 

It was a memorable Christmas, so much so that I am already thinking of ways to make this one just as great.  First I have to figure out if I need to start making more stockings!

Happy what is left of summer,

Caitlin