Handmade Stocking Tutorial { AND the easiest way to print on fabric}

{To see the print on fabric tute, scroll ALL the way to the bottom of this post}

I think I need to preface this post with a little story.

Once upon a time, 11 years ago (wowsers!) a littler (than she is now) gal named Sundi, thought she would impress her new husband with some handmade stockings.  She thought to herself, "this should be easy!  I'll just use knit, that way it won't be obvious that I hand cut the stockings with no pattern at all.  Oh and then how about I add a little heavy decorator fabric to the top?"  The stockings were two different sizes, frumpy, shapeless and....well....hideous!  The end. 

Or at least until now.......

Although I have always known the specifics of what I did wrong that day, the stockings were so horrid and the scars in my memory run so deep, that I have been frightened away from making homemade stockings ever since.  Does that sort of thing ever happen to anyone else?  It's like I got a bad taste in my mouth for them!


But behold, the new and improved "handmade stockings"

Handmade StockingsPin It

And keep Beholding.......... the mantel!  {Click here for book page banner}  {Click here for felt ball garland}

And behold once more,  a closeup of the applique designs

Alright, alright enough beholding let's make some stockings already!  I will show you how to make the stockings and also how to print on fabric.  I will have a tutorial on applique-ing (that's what the pictures are on the stockings) soon, but I didn't want to have a 5 page post here.

You will need:
2 yards of muslin
2 yards of cream or white felt
1 yard of Heat n Bond or Wonder Under if you want to stitch over your applique (I didn't)
1/4 yard for each contrasting fabric to go on the top of the stocking and also to use in the appliques
A couple yards of trim (lace, ric rac, etc.)
(These measurements are VERY approximate guesses)

1.  Find a stocking you like, put in on some newspaper and trace it for a pattern.

2.  Take your muslin and fold it in half, then take your felt and fold it in half as well.  Pin your pattern to the top of those four layers, make sure you have some good scissors and cut out your stocking.  Then lay your stocking out like the picture above.

3.  Sew all sides of one piece of muslin and one piece of felt together.  Then do the same for the other two pieces of fabric.  When your done with this step you should have two pieces.  A front and a back to the stocking, both looking like the picture above.

4.  If you are planning to stitch your applique onto the stocking then you should add it now.  If your not stitching you can add it whenever.  Because I'm lazy, and because I used Heat n Bond, (found in a roll at any sewing store or Walmart) I didn't need to stitch mine on.  I might do it for effect next year though.

 5. Don't freak out cause I'm totally switching stockings on your from here on out.  I kept forgetting which pictures I took when I was making these so I just took them when I remembered to.  Fold a strip of about 8 inches (doesn't matter) in half and press it with the raw edges together.  Then line up the raw edges with the top of the inside of the stocking and sew straight across the top.

6.  Flip it over to the right side of the stocking and press it REALLY good.  Do the exact same to the other half of the stocking.

7.  Then add your trim to the bottom of the flap.

Here's a picture to help you make sense of it all....

8.  Then put your front and back together like this and sew ALL the way around, from the top of the flap clear to the top of the other side.  Make sense?  The way that these stockings keep their shape so well is that we are not sewing and then turning them inside out.  You LEAVE THE RAW EDGE ON THE FRONT of the stocking.  When I'm sewing the stocking together I like to go just a teeny bit wonky (look closely at the finished product to see what I mean), after all we are going for the scrappy look here.

Like so...

Then it will look like this.  Still looks funny but we're almost there!

9.  Take your pinking sheers and cut all the way around the whole stocking.  Mine aren't that great so I actually pinked both sides of  the stockings right before step 8 (before I sewed the front to the back)  And VOILA!!

My little sweeties wanted to be a part of project.  Here they are presenting the stockings!

And here is your "easiest way to print on fabric tutorial".

  I used an Epson printer.  I did 6 separate print jobs and had the printer jam on me only 1 of those times.  The trick is to just make sure the fabric is taped well and smooth with no loose edges.






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