A Holiday DIY

Happy Wednesday! I originally planned this post for yesterday, but it turned out to be more of a catch-up kind of day around the house - so here it is!


The other week before we left for Massachusetts I realized a few things...


1. This is Halle's first Christmas, and we only have two stockings (that are not even that nice)


2. Stockings can be EXPENSIVE... especially if you want matching ones. It's also not always easy to find nice ones that you like and match your Christmas decor.


3. I had a TON of extra fabric not being used for anything that could surely make some pretty stockings... that MATCH!


So, when we were packing up, I grabbed a bunch of fabric to bring with us, in hopes that B's Mom and I could put our heads together to make some pretty stockings. The night before Thanksgiving, while the men folk and Halle were taking in the Bruins game - we got to work. Here's what we did...


1. I drew the shape I wanted onto a large piece of heavy paper that B's Mom gave me. It wasn't perfect the first time, so I kept going back, erasing and re-drawing until I got the exact shape and size that I wanted.

2. Once we had it right, I cut it out and traced it onto our fabric. I made sure to trace it a bit wider to allow for the seams of the stocking.


3. Before cutting out the stocking shapes, we folded the fabric four times. The fabric I picked was thin, so we needed to double up the fabric for each side of the stocking. Thankfully I had a ton of fabric so we knew that we would be able to get four stockings no problem (me, B, Halle and then guests OR a future baby... Halle will want a sibling one day, right?).

4. Once we had the pieces cut out, B's Mom sewed the tops of two of the stocking shapes together, then sewed our seams flat so we would get a clean edge at the top of the stocking.

5. With our tops sewed clean, B's Mom then took the two doubled up stocking sides and sewed them together. I gave them a quick iron and then we flipped them right-side out - boy did they look great!....


But we weren't done yet! I'd also brought two different styles of blue fabric with me - paisley printed napkins that I'd grabbed on clearance at HomeSense before Halle was born, and some plain blue denim that I'd bought in Spring of 2010 for one of my final school projects. They match well, and would give us great coordinating stockings.


6. Lucky for me, the fold lines in the napkins gave us the perfect width for our stocking cuffs. So I cut the napkin a little wider than we needed and then ironed it flat.

7. Then it was time for B's Mom and I to really put our heads together to decide how to get the cuff on right. We could've sewed it on BEFORE we sewed the stocking together, but we were flying by the seats of our pants, so we needed to come up with a plan. B's Mom sewed my cut napkin into a loop - lining up the edging of the napkin, and then tried pinning it onto the stocking to see how it would look.

8. It worked out PERFECTLY, so B's Mom folded over the cut edge inside of the stocking to get us a finished edge inside as well, then sewed it up nicely. Our first finished stocking looked fantastic.


It took a few more days, and B's Mom was nice enough to finish up this project for us while we were out visiting a friend on Sunday afternoon, so by the time we left to head home the next morning, we had four beautiful stockings to bring home. I cannot wait to hang them by our fireplace... once we get it all cleaned up and our new mantle on there from my father.

Have you ever made your own Christmas stockings, or started any other Christmas crafts/DIY's to deck your halls this holidays season?