Semi-Homemade Christmas Stockings

When it came time to make some Christmas stockings for my husband and me, I was limited by the fact that I can’t sew. (I know this is a severe character flaw that I will begin to remedy in the new year via sewing classes from my mother.) I had no idea what I wanted our stockings to look like, but I love patterns and texture. And I can embroider.

I purchased some ready-made, extra large (we love things in our stockings and the nuts, candies, and fruit take up a lot of space) stockings for cheap. I went to my fabric craft reserve and picked out some vintage fabrics and a set of green striped sheets. The stockings had white furry cuffs at the top, so I removed the cuffs and used the size as a general guide for the new green-striped cuffs I added.

Embellishment was a difficult choice, but I decided to use a winter/Christmas theme–snowflakes for me, Christmas trees for Rob. If we ever need to make some more stockings in the future (ie – if we ever have kids), I’ll probably do one with presents, or stars, or gingerbread men shapes; the possibilities are endless! I cut snowflakes and trees out of the vintage fabrics and tacked them on with some glue and embroidery – french knots and running stitches. I used my laptop to lay out our names in a script font and then traced the names through the green-striped sheet using a fabric pen and relying on the light of my laptop for the tracing. I embroidered our names with a crewel yarn to give them some oomph.

The last step was sewing the new cuffs on to the stockings. I did it all with very simple stitches (by hand), but they are surprisingly sturdy. The overall product is pretty rustic, but I’m really pleased with them. The fabrics are so pretty, and I love the green striped cuffs with the red stockings. I’ve saved the sheets & vintage fabrics in a special box, so if we do ever have kids I can use the same method to make new ones! (Or if I ever feel like doing stockings for all the animals!)