Dec
by Wardeh Harmon
My children’s felt Christmas stockings — featuring a penguin, a snowman and a mitten constructed from simple shapes out of felt.
I created these stockings for my children in the Christmas of 2003. We still adore them. I planned to also make a stocking for my husband and me, but the felt for those is still sitting in my fabric stash. These aren’t hard stockings — in fact, they’re very easy — but I made the mistake of planning to make too many of them at the same time. Perhaps this will be the year that I finish ours? Just writing out the instructions is inspiring me to finish the last two!
Just like many Christmas stockings, these stockings are not that sturdy. We hang them on the wall during the Christmas season. After filling them for Christmas morning, we then lay them on the floor in front of the Christmas tree or leaned up against a wrapped gift.
To make these stockings, you’ll need two-sided fusible interfacing; embroidery floss and a needle to perform the blanket stitching; and felt in the colors of your choice. The felt for the stocking itself should be constructed from a purchase of felt-by-the-yard. For the image featured on the front of the stocking, inexpensive felt squares work wonderfully.
In addition, you need to locate another ready-made stocking in order to trace the stocking shape. Also, you need a pattern or some ideas for the stocking front design — the image you want the stocking to feature (for instance, a snow man, a reindeer, etc.) Please don’t think this will be difficult. If you look at your own Christmas decorations and items in your household — on coffee mugs, sweatshirts, books, magazines, Christmas ornaments, other stockings — I am certain you’ll find something really quickly that you can trace.
Click to view a related craft — Stuffed Felt Christmas Ornaments.
Ready to start? Here we go!
1. Figure out the design. Choose a simple image that will go on the front of the stocking. Pick something that can be broken down into basic shapes and layered up. You might consider adorning the item. For instance, I chose a mitten made up of simple shapes for my daughter Naomi’s stocking and I adorned it by adding a heart on top of it. You could choose typical Christmas adornments, like stars and hearts.
Naomi’s mitten stocking adorned with a heart.
2. Cut out all the felt pieces. Cut out two stocking-size pieces from felt for the stocking itself. From the same color of felt, cut out a rectangle that is about 1 inch wide and 6 inches long. This will end up being the hanger.
Now cut out pieces of felt in the colors of your choice for the image that will go on the front of the stocking. Choose bright colors with good contrast. Play around with the layout by laying out the pieces to see how they go together. If necessary, change the colors, using extra felt, until you get it right.
When you have the design arrangement right, cut out a matching piece of double-sided fusible interfacing for each of the design pieces.
We chose a penguin for Haniya’s stocking because that was the year we read and loved “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” by Richard and Florence Atwater. This penguins reveals the contrast developed by colors and simple shapes layered up.
3. Fuse the design pieces to the stocking front. Use one of the stocking-size pieces and all the little design pieces for this step.
There are two types of this interfacing (of which I am aware). For the first kind, fuse the interfacing to one piece of felt, then peel off the interfacing’s paper backing, which will expose another fuse which you should fuse to the front of the stocking. For the other type, you’ll put the interfacing between the shape and stocking (or shape and another shape) and fuse them together in one step.
For whatever type you have, follow the manufacturer’s directions to perform this step, your goal being to end up with all the image pieces fused to the front of one stocking piece. Start with the pieces that will be on the bottom layer of the image and finish with the pieces that adorn the image. If it will help you get the order right, lay all the pieces out first, then move them to the side and flip them upside down.
4. Blanket-stitch around all pieces of the stocking design. Choose a color of thread that will achieve the kind of contrast you desire. You don’t have to use the same color for all pieces; work what looks best. You can find information on how to blanket stitch at Simplicity. Refer to the pictures of my stockings for a general idea of the look you want to achieve.
5. Add buttons and embellishments. The sky is the limit with how to adorn the stocking front, however I would encourage you to keep it somewhat simple. Buttons work great for eyes and to sew all over the face of the stocking. Once again, use my stockings to give you ideas. You can also stitch into the stocking front, making little X’s or snowflakes. To get a little fancier, you could stitch little hearts or the recipient’s name.
6. Blanket-stitch the two stocking pieces together. Do this around the entire outer edge of the stocking, leaving the top open. To finish off the stocking, attach the hanger to the inside of the top opening, putting it on the side opposite from where the foot comes out.
On our son Mikah’s stocking, I really should go back and add tiny buttons for the snowman’s eyes. I think I will!
That’s it! Have fun with these. I’d really love to see a photo of your unique designs. If you have comments or questions, leave a comment below or email me at wardeh@t2chk.org.
© Copyright 2006 by Wardeh Harmon. Used with permission from the author.
