Homemade Stocking

You know how you get a vision for something, and then it just seems like it goes a totally different direction. Well, that is how this project started from the beginning. Originally I wantd to make a stocking that was all red mattress ticking and some burlap possibly. Well, long story short, due to pricing I ended up using osnaburg fabric with red mattress ticking as the accent. I like the osnaburg, because it has a natural look along the lines as muslin and linen type look, but it is much cheaper. My plan was to make this for our front door with an floral arrangement coming out. Supplies needed to make stocking: 1/2 yard osnaburg fabric 1/4 yard red mattress ticking thread plastic ring to hang stocking with or make one from fabric. I printed a stocking template from the Martha Stewart website and increased the size 300%. You can find that here: http://www.marthastewart.com/275308/christmas-templates/@center/307034/christmas-workshop Cut the stocking out of the osnaburg fabric and use the ticking as cuff of the stocking, for toe and heal patches. The cuff, cut two rectangles 8" x 6".

Place the patches in place on the front of the stocking and machine basted it in place just where the stitching will be visible. The other places the patches will be actually in the seam. The top of each cuff do a double 1/4" hem, this will eventually be the bottom of the cuff. Attach the cuffs to the top of the stocking and put the wrong side of the stocking to the right side of the cuff. I made one small mistake here, I should have sewed the cuffs together, right sides together first, then attached them to the stocking. I didn't, and had a raw edge in the end on my cuff seams showing. Once the cuffs were in place, I sewed the front and back of stocking together, with right sides facing each other.

Once front and back are sewn together, turn them right side out and fold cuff over. This is where my cuff shows raw edges. However, for this look, it didn't bother me so much and I just kept it that way. I chose to fray the raw edges of the patches a bit too.

Attach a hang loop either to the corner or back of the stocking. You can make one from the fabric. I chose to use a plastic ring. When attaching rings, a fast process is to put your stitch length I '0' and use a zig zag stitch over the top of the ring several times.

Once I finished the stocking I hung it on my bulletin board trying to do a floral arrangement inside it. I used styrofoam for the flowers and filled the stocking with plastic bags. Getting frustrated, I pinned the stocking in place on the board and realized, that it looked pretty good there. So, I covered the board with burlap and hung the stocking there instead of my front door.