Make it: Christmas Stockings

We couldn't do our Christmas Tutorials without making Christmas Stockings and so today, it's all about just that.  I have started a bit of a tradition with Christmas presents for all my friends children's first Christmas and I make a stocking with their name on.  So if you want to make your own, just follow the instructions below.

You will need:  Patterned Fabric for the outside (at least a fat quarter size), Plain fabric for the inside (although you could have patterned fabric inside too), Scissors, Sewing Thread, Ribbon, Pattern piece or an idea of your stocking shape and a Sewing Machine.

The first thing to do is cut out all your fabric pieces.  I made a template and then cut out 2 pieces of patterned fabric and 2 pieces of plain fabric to a little larger in size to the pattern piece for some seem allowance.

I then laid all the pieces together how I wanted to put them together.  The two pieces of lining fabric go together and then the two patterned pieces go right side together on top.

Then, you need to sew all around the outer edge, making sure you don't sew up the top.

When you get to about two thirds of the way up the back of the stocking, add a looped piece of ribbon inside the stocking.

Sew right up the back of the stocking, making sure the looped ribbon is sewn in place.  Also, make sure that you sew this piece of ribbon about 2 inches down from the top of the stocking as will become clear later.

When you are all sewn up, it should look a little like this.  You can trim around the edge if you have any excess fabric.

On the inside of the curve, cut into the fabric to make the curve work better when you turn it the right side out.  Make sure not to cut through your sewing though.

You can now turn your stocking the right side out.

At this stage you can do many different tops for your stocking as you have a blank canvas to play with.

For this stocking, I decided to sew around the top of the edge of the stocking so that it was all kept together.

Then, I folded over the top and used my trusty hair straighteners to press it.  I always use my straighteners to press small items and it saves getting the ironing board out!  Something I am always keen to do.

I then, folded the edge over again to hide the seem and pressed in place.  Now you can always leave it like this.

Or, like me, use a nice zig zag stitch to keep it in place.  As this is going to a child, I thought stitching everything in place would be a great idea!

After all that, you are finished!  What do you think?  I usually add their names onto the stocking, but that would give the game away as to who these are going to.  So I thought I would show you them before.  If you do want to know about the names.  I cut out letters from felt and then glue or sew them in place.

Below are a few of the other ones I made.  As you can see, you can make them all look different, even with the same fabric.  Who would you make yours for?  I made one for Sammy too last year, so at least Santa knows where to put her presents when he comes! he, he.


As always, if you make anything for our Make it Tutorials, just tweet us or Instagram with #livelovemake.  Or put a pic on our Facebook page.  We had some great pictures recently of our Cable Cosy, so thanks for those.  Always lovely to see what you have made.

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