A Stocking for the Big O ...plus a little something extra for your viewing pleasure

Let me just start by saying that I am a tutorial drop out. I always take a bunch of pictures at the beginning, but then I fizzle out at the end. Such is the case with this little explanation on the big O's stocking. Sorry. I will at least still try to explain things generally as the pictures die out. If you find yourself just dying to make your own quilted stocking and you don't know how to get from one step to the next, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail and I'll help you through. Anyway, here we go...

I've seen a bunch of handmade stockings on blogs lately and I decided that's what I wanted to do for the big O. And I am proud to say that this entire stocking was made from scraps and stuff that I already had on hand. I didn't have to go out and buy a single thing for it! Always a great feeling.

I started by cutting some "coordinating fabrics" (I am so bad at matching fabrics.) into strips about 17" long. I decided 17" was a good length after I pulled out a stocking to use as a general pattern. Also, 17" is the width of my cutting mat. How convenient.

Before I sewed the strips together I laid them all out and decided what order I wanted all the fabrics in. After doing this I realized I had way too much fabric and I cut some of my strips down smaller.

Then I sewed the strips together. Whee.

Then I ironed the seam allowances down.

For something like this where all of these edges are going to end up enclosed in the stocking, I iron toward the darkest fabric.

Then I positioned the stocking on my fabric.

Once I liked how it was positioned, I pinned it in place.

Then I cut around the pattern stocking, leaving a little extra for seam allowances. I just eyeballed it.

Then I used my stocking front as a pattern and cut out three pieces of the plain material I used. This particular fabric is left over from the table cloths at our wedding. I thought that was sweet.


Since this particular fabric doesn't have a "back" or a "front" I just folded the fabric so I could cut out my three pieces all at once.

Sweet.

Next, still using the stocking front as my pattern, I cut two pieces of quilt batting.
This batting was left over from the baby blanket Bryan and I made for the big O.

Pin the front together like this.
In other words, lay down a piece of your plain backing fabric, then one piece of batting, then lay the front piece on top.
Pin it together well.
Do the same with the fabric for the back.

I hand quilted the entire stocking.
This turned out very pretty and heartfelt, I think, but I think it could also be done very easily on the machine if you don't want to sit on the couch during your free time quilting a stocking for three or four days.

Here are some attempts at close-up pictures of my hand quilting. My camera takes really bad close-up shots. So, enjoy.

Edited to add: On the back I quilted/embroidered her name. To do this I went to this website, typed in her name, found a font I liked (I used this one), and increased the size until it was the size I wanted the letters to be. Then I just held the one layer of fabric up to the screen and traced her name with a pencil. So easy! I didn't even have to print anything out! Once I finished her name, I just did some little snowflakes at random to fill out the rest of the space.

Once the front and back were each quilted, I pinned them (right sides together) and sewed them together with about a 1/4" seam allowance. Then I clipped the seam allowance in the toe and heel as needed. (Tip: if your toe or heel isn't shaping very nicely, try cutting some small chunks here and there out of the seam allowance. This will allow things to lay more nicely.)

Then I turned my stocking right side out.

Next, I pinned my matching double fold bias tape around the top edge of the stocking, starting and ending at the seam where I planned to put my hanging loop in. I sewed the bias tape in place.

For the loop to hang it with, I just sewed an extra little scrap of fabric into a tube. With the tube right side out, I sewed the ends together. Then I flipped it around (this probably doesn't make sense, sorry) so that the ends of the loop were pointing inside the loop. With the loop like this, I pinned it onto the stocking. I sewed the loop on, stitching over the same line where I had sewn the bias tape on. Oh, and if you're wondering, I left the inside seams unfinished. How terrible of me.

Here's the finished back.
Those little dot-looking things are tiny little snowflakes.
It's pretty in person. I promise.

And...
ta-da!
The finished front.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I'm pretty excited for Christmas this year. We're going to be spending it here in our little apartment which means we can start some of our own traditions. This year, we're going to try out something new. Throughout the month of December our stockings will be hanging. And instead of only finding surprises in our stockings on Christmas morning, we're going to leave little notes or tiny little thoughtful gifts in each others stockings throughout the month! I think it'll be fun to be sneak things into each others stockings... and I think it'll be fun to get some little surprises. (I got the idea for this little tradition here...scroll down to the indented part to see what I'm talking about) We'll still be doing stockings for Christmas too though. I'd be sad if we didn't.

I am so excited for Christmas!


Also, I know this doesn't really relate at all, but I've been meaning to post pictures of the sweet-o sweatshirt I made for my nephew C's 2nd birthday. Remember that cool pattern I won from Lil Blue Boo? Well, this little sweatshirt for C was made using that pattern. I made this cute little sweatshirt using a large (or extra large... I don't really remember) mens sweatshirt that I found at the thrift store for $4.00. So cool. Anyway, here's how it turned out!

Front

Back

Close up of front

Close up of back

Close up of the cool little tag I made
(Ahh! Sorry! I can't find the tutorial on how to make these tags! If I find it I'll update this post!)

I'm a good auntie. I know two year old boys don't care at all about getting a sweatshirt whether it's their birthday or not. So I threw in some rescue vehicles from the dollar store to win him over.

And last, but not least, the little man himself in his new threads.
Not the best picture, but if you know a two year old, you know how hard it can be to get a decent picture of them. I'll take what I can get.

The end!