Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Sew-Sew Adventure


Stockings could very well be one of the best parts of the Christmas present experience (at least if you grew up in my household and had a mom that went all kinds of stocking-stuffer-crazy). My stocking would be filled with lip gloss, nail polish, bath stuff, travel size samples of random things, oddball toys, weird candy, and whatever other trinkets she had picked up throughout the year. I always felt sorry for those poor children who received a stocking full of oranges and nuts! LOL

I've carried on my mom's tradition to my boys. For about ten years now, I've wanted to make my own stockings for the family. I don't knit, I don't crochet, I don't cross-stitch, and I don't sew. 

I remember one time, I bought a pattern at the fabric store, got home, opened it, and quickly got discouraged when I realized it was written in a foreign language - or atleast it should have been. Cut along the bias? Back stitch? I sent that pattern and the bits of fabric I'd picked up to Craft-Siberia, where all well-intentioned but unfinished crafts go to die. 

But this year, my good friend Stacy decided to make her own as well. She found a Fabricworm blog that swore it was easy so we decided to give it a try. 


Now, here is where I apologize for not taking more photos but go to Fabricworm's blog and she has you all taken care of. 

So, first order of business was to go and buy supplies. I thought this would be the easy part. Nope! There are soooo many wonderful, whimsical, beautiful fabrics to choose from that it took me forever to finally settle on what I needed. 


Here are a couple of tips for when you go to the store to get your supplies:
  • Plan to spend some time there! 
  • Decide if you want to make each stocking match or not. I chose to make mine have similar colors but chose fabric that made me think of each person too. 
  • Fabricworm's blog calls for 1/2 yard of one for the stocking plus a 1/4 yard of something for the cuff. It's plenty - trust me!
My last piece of supply advice is to carefully consider the amount of batting you need. I figured since I needed 3.5 yards TOTAL (for 7 stockings) of stocking fabric, that I'd need 3.5 yards of batting. My batting was MUCH wider than the fabric for the stocking so I could have went with half that or even less. I have enough batting to make everyone in my neighborhood a stocking. 

I arrived at Stacy's and we started cutting fabric, pinning, pressing, and ACK - eventually sewing. I will say it was much easier than I expected and a big thank you to Fabricworm for making it so easy to follow the instructions. 

I made seven stockings in about 8 hours (but with visiting/eating/friend time in there too). These photos don't do them justice because I did an AWESOME job. They actually look like I might have sort of known what I was doing. 




My last little piece of advice...follow the instructions. There were a couple of areas I considered doing something different (like sewing the stocking part, then sewing the liner and stuffing it in. I actually considered just sewing all three together but the way the instructions are make it look much more finished!). 

Oh, one other thing...is you pick fabric that has direction - make sure you put the direction the right way or you'll need that seam ripper. I sewed words upside down and nearly sewed my snowmen too! 

Happy sewing!

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