A String of Stockings for Christmas

Hello again, friends! I know, long time, no see…I have been VERY busy plugging away at a list of projects to do and am finally to the point where I can get some tutorials done from all those said projects. I LOVE making for Tim Holtz and his brands they always inspire me and get my creative juices flowing, so, prepare yourself to be bombarded with tutorials, plus, I’ll be going back and forth between Halloween and Christmas because that is what my making sessions have been like from the beginning of May to present. 🙂

Today’s project features the new Tim Holtz Holidays Past Fabric Line. It is available now and sure to get you into a Christmas making mood..and in plenty of time to get projects done if that is your goal this year. Here is a link to Simon Says Stamp who is now carrying the entire line, available in fat quarters or by the yard. I also have clickable links at the bottom of the post to each individual fabric that I used.

The stockings were created in two different sizes and the largest fits a gift card. I decided that these would be cute to string across and make a banner, but, they are also an adorable size to tie onto a gift or use on the front of a handmade card.

The pattern I used was from a blog post by orangebettie.com it has a printable pattern and was such a great sewing tutorial. If you click on the link, it will take you directly to the pattern where there is a printable pattern for the stockings. The pattern is for 3 different sizes of mini stockings. I made these using the “little” and “teeny weeny”. The “little” is the larger size that I used on my banner and is the perfect size to hold a gift card. The “teeny weeny” is THE CUTEST and the size that I used on the front of the card. For the card, I just left the top cuff unfolded and didn’t add a sewn loop (as I did with the banner stockings) so that it gave it more of a vintage longer stocking look.

Again, the tutorial over on orangebettie.com is wonderful, I just tweaked it to make it into what I wanted, but I am going to explain a few of the steps that I did to get them made into a banner. I had the thought that adding vintage buttons to a long piece of sewn fabric to create the banner string and thought it would make an adorable way to have it as a display but when you had a Christmas party. It would be a great way to make cute gifts to individually hand out to your guests. Simply unbutton a little stocking and have the guest take it home….then, the recipient could use the stocking for a little ornament!

I started by cutting out several combinations of patterned fabrics using the patterns.

My entire banner is approximately 130″ Long (almost 10.5 ft) and the banner has 11 stockings spaced approximately 5.5-6″ inches apart, 6 of the “little” size and 5 of the “teeny weeny” size. The stockings hang within the middle 52″ or so, of the entire banner leaving 38-40″ or so on either side of the center grouping of stockings.

Follow the instructions for building the stockings over on Orangebettie.com. Trim your pieces out using your desired fabrics being sure to iron them as you assemble them.

This is the layout of the pieces before they were stitched together. Notice that you need to remember to make a front and back as she describes in her note. (The foot of the lining piece should be facing the SAME DIRECTION as the foot of the main stocking piece.)

I stitched all the stockings using a 1/4 inch seam as it calls for in the directions.

I also used a smaller stitch (2.0mm) then what my normal stitch is on my machine (2.5mm). This made it easier to get around the small curves of the stocking as I stitched. It’s called a stay stitch. Using a shorter stitch length here will help secure the fabric further and keep it from stretching. Also, don’t put the petal to the metal as you sew around the curves. Keep your stitch at a slower but steady pace and if your sewing machine has the feature, sew and have the needle stay in the fabric when you stop.

Instead of using ribbon as the loop on the stocking (as the orangebettie.com pattern calls for) I used a small piece of the fabric that I cut, stitched and made into a loop.

Here is a photo of the stocking all pinched and pinned together before it was stitched together. Sewing clips were super helpful and the pins on the left are marked for the area where the stocking was turned rightside out after it was stitched.

Here is the stocking after it was stitched …next I turned it rightside out and ironed it. Then folded the cuff down and ironed it again.

The finished stocking…now, let’s go make a teeny weeny one!

For the teeny weenies, I used several of the scraps of fabrics that I had leftover from some other projects. I stitched the strips together making one or two larger pieces of fabric, then used the stocking pattern to cut out the main pieces for the teeny weeny stockings. The lining of the teeny weenies were scraps of the plain fabrics.

Here’s two pieces of the scrappy teeny weenies. The plaid was used for the interior pieces and the green stripe became the cuffs.

I repeated the steps to make a stocking and once stitched, turned the stocking rightside out using a bone folder, ironed it and stitched the opening closed (where I had turned the stocking out) by using a straight stitch with my sewing machine.

Once the seam was sewn shut, I used the bone folder to gently push the inside lining into place inside the stocking, then I ironed it to finish it. I did this process many more times until I had all 11 of my mini stockings. Then I went to making the trim piece for the banner.

Next it was time to create the binding fabric to string and create the banner/bunting. This technically would be called a bias binding but, as I wanted it to be read from one end to the other and, I wanted it to be easy, I did just a straight cutting, not on the bias.

I cut 3 long strips of the Christmas Clipping fabric and the pieces were cut 2″ wide by 44″ long. They were stitched together to create one long piece of fabric that measured approximately 130 (or so) inches from end to end. I then folded it in half, wrong side to wrong side, lengthwise to make a 1″ wide by 130″ piece, and I ironed it as I folded it to create a long crease in the center. Once it was folded in half and ironed, I unfolded it and lined one side of the edge the longways and ironed it along the crease to create the first 1/2″ fold. Once I got that side done, I did the same for the other side, which then created the 1/2″ binding. This was then stitched together to create one long piece.

Next, I stitched the vintage buttons onto the fabric so that I could attach the stockings. Below is a process photo of the binding strip after it was stitched together. I strung the piece onto a cabinet, then arranged and clipped the stockings as to figure out where I wanted the buttons to go, then I hand stitched the buttons into place, and buttoned on the stockings. You’ll see that I have two pieces of the tape that are shown in my process photo. I made the first one then decided that the Christmas Clipping Fabric was more the look that I wanted.

Once the buttons were sewn on, I attached both sizes of the stockings going every other with the sizes.

And with that…my project was complete!

Now, you may be wondering…what about the mittens, Stacy??

…that was a last minute thought of mine after I had completed the stockings, that it might be cute to do the same thing, but with mittens.

So…I found a pattern to trace to make the mittens online and repeated the process as I had done with the stockings. Here is a sample of the mitten I completed, but, as it was a last minute idea, I didn’t take process photos. I found a pattern for a mitten shape online at SeeKateSew.com but I tweaked it a little to make it for the mitten.

I used her pattern as a guide and made one to my specific size so that it would work on the banner. 🙂

And with that…my projects were complete!

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope this inspires you to sew something fun up for gift giving this holiday season!

The products used to create this project are listed below with links to Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com. Thank you so much for supporting me through shopping through them. I appreciate it so much! – Creatively yours, Stacy

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