Christmas Stocking Tutorial {& Winter Wonders & Holiday Happenings Linky Party}

Today is a big day around here.  I’m co-hosting my first linky party, ever!  Woo hoo!

Your opportunity to link-up will be at the bottom of this post, but first I’m going to show you how you can make your own Christmas stockings — and, did I mention budget-friendly?

Earlier this week, I posted about my new matching stockings here.  Today, I’m showing you how I made them.  You don’t really need super great sewing skills to make them.  And, honestly, you could even use fabric glue to do this project if you don’t plan on filling the stockings, so even if you don’t sew, you could still do this project!

First, I used my son’s Christmas stocking as my pattern. 

I placed it on the burlap and cut around it giving myself about a 1-inch seam allowance (for you non-sewers, that means I cut it about an inch wider than the stocking).

Then I cut long 3 1/2″-wide strips of the buffalo check fabric to make a cuff cutting them the correct width of the stocking.

By the way, if you do a lot of fabric projects I highly recommend a rolling scissors and a plastic quilting grid (shown above).  They are IDEAL tools for cutting straight lines and measuring perfectly.

Before I go any further in the tutorial, I should point something out about this project.  You’ll notice my stocking cuff has a frayed edge:

I did this for two reasons…laziness and I thought it was kind of cute!  lol

The frayed edge is actually the bound edge of the fabric bolt.  I thought it was kind of cute and using it as my cuff edge meant I didn’t have to sew a hem!  Ha!  If your fabric doesn’t have this edge you would have to hem the fabric to prevent fraying.

Okay…so back to the project. 
The trickiest part of making a stocking with a cuff is figuring out how to sew the pieces together so that your cuff folds over the correct way.  If you already sew, you know that you have to sew the right sides of the fabric together and then turn it right-side-out when you’re done so the seam is hidden inside the stocking.  When working with something like burlap — which has no obvious right or wrong side — you really have to pay attention to what you’re doing!  So, in this case, I needed to make sure that both sides of the stocking were pointing in the right direction when I pinned the right two sides together.  Make sense?  It’s a little confusing, I know.

So, first, find your “right” sides and then pin one piece of your cuff fabric to one piece of your burlap stocking fabric. 

Before you make the commitment of sewing the pieces together, pin your two sides as shown above and then put your two stocking sides right-sides together to make sure the correct sides will be facing out when done.  This is the most confusing part of the entire project!  Once you figure out how it all works together, the sewing goes super fast.

Okay…so now, you have sewn the piece together as shown above — the cuff and the burlap piece.

Then, press the inside seam as shown above. 

Just so you know, I detest ironing.  Hate it.  But, it is essential when sewing!  This makes all the difference as to how you’re project will turn out.  It is especially true with a heavily woven fabric like the upholstery burlap I’m working with.

Once you have pressed the seam open, fold the cuff over like so:

And then press it again at the seam so it lies nice and flat.

When both cuffs are sewn on, pin the right sides of your two stocking halves together and sew!

Before you turn it right-side-out, cut little notches around the curved edges to prevent the fabric from puckering.

Then press the seams as shown.

Then turn it right-side-out and press it again so all your seams lie flat.

Now that the stocking is made, it needs a little loop so it can hang from a stocking hook.  I made mine by creating one out of fabric.  I just folded a length of fabric over three times (like you fold a business letter in an envelope), pressing with each fold, and then sewed a zigzag seem in the center of the fabric. 

You could also use a ribbon or a piece of cording or twine to save yourself from this additional work, but I didn’t have any so I made my loop from fabric.  Truthfully, the way I made my loop is a bit of a cheat…I didn’t finish the edge but I figured these won’t get heavy use and the seam won’t be that noticeable, so I took a short-cut!

After creating the fabric loop, I sewed it to the inside back of the stockingwith a zigzag stitch .

Done!

These went together very quickly and easily.  I had all four completed within about 2 hours or so. 

I love them!

Materials used:
Approx. 2 yards of burlap fabric
Approx. 1/3 yard of buffalo check fabric
Matching thread

Project cost:
Because I already had all the materials, mine didn’t cost me a thing!  However, if I were to buy all the fabric for the project it would have cost me around $26 – $30 (upholstery burlap $10/yd., buffalo check $20/yd.)

Totally custom and sooo much cheaper than buying 4 stockings at the store!  Love that!

Now, on to the linky party!