{Holiday Crafting} My Christmas Stocking!!

This week I have put the final touches on our Christmas decor, with the very last piece being My Very Own Christmas Stocking. Finally! 

In my last post, I showed you the Christmas Stocking I made and monogrammed for Chris. I made a matching stocking for myself, and am totally in love with it!
 

The only difference between the two stockings, aside from the obviously different toes, is that while making Chris's stocking, I didn't use bias strips to make the piping, and what a mistake that was! See Chris's stocking below, I wasn't overly impressed with how the toe came out.

I learned my lesson and used bias strips to make the piping for my stocking, and I am thankful because it would have been miserable to pipe otherwise.

Don't you love the pair? Can someone please pay me to sit home and make Christmas stockings all day??

HOLLER!

{Holiday Crafting} Monogrammed Christmas Stocking!

I am so excited to show you this project! 

If you've been following me for a while, you may have seen this Quilted Christmas Stocking that I made last Christmas. It was my first Christmas stocking, and when I pulled  it out of the Christmas bins this year, I really wasn't too fond of it. 

I actually don't think that I like the look of quilted things for my home, aside from Quilts of course.

Does anyone else feel that way? I think I'd rather have certain items in my home have a more formal look than quilted goods offer. 

Anyway, that meant that  I had to find a new Christmas Stocking and possibly tree skirt pattern this year. I saw this great pattern at the Sewing Shop and thought that I['d give it a go. Actually, I am teaching a few classes on this pattern.

I have been holding onto this Anna Maria Horner velveteen fabric for quite a while now, as I think that it SCREAMS Christmas to me, without being too theme-y. Look how great it looks paired with a dark green cotton sateen (I think) fabric that I decided to use as piping. 

You can see in the pattern above that there are two stocking options. Given that I want to use the same fabric for each stocking, with the same piping too, I decided that I would make the Elf Style stocking for me, and the other stocking for my Husband ("C"hris).

Ok so I knew that I would use Anna Maria's velveteen fabric as the base fabric, and I knew that I would use the gorgeous sateen fabric, but I thought that monogramming our initials onto the stocking would be perfecccctt. I am new to embroidery, so I did a few practice runs, naturally.

I definitely liked the second "C" better than the first. It was also SUPER easy and quick to make. Then I had to play  around with the scale and placement of the letter on the stocking. I wasn't sure if I wanted it big or small, in the center or near the top, or what. 

I am not sure how real embroiderers would go about making this project, but this is the only way that I could think of. 

I was also trying out with different thread colors. I was using Pearle Cotton in size 5. It has a gorgeous sheen which is perfect for this formal yet informal stocking. I ended up using the two green combo at the bottom. I wasn't sure that I wanted to introduce a new color to the mix.

Here are some progress pics:

I think that the C turned out pretty well!!
 

Then I made some piping -- I do think that I need to use bias strips to make the piping next time, be cause I am going around curves which were very tough.

 Here is the finished stocking!! Don't you love it? Now I have to make one for myself too...

All in all, this project was really really very easy. The embroidery was super simple and the stocking pattern was easy peasy. I do think that I changed the pattern to eliminate the cuff and other embellishments that I just don't think are my style.

HOLLER!

{Holiday Gifting} Ideas & Inspiration

Are you gearing up for the Holidays yet? Particularly my favorite Holiday...Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know. I knowwwwwwwwwww. Christmas before Thanksgiving is so annoying. Believe me, I know. 

Buttttttt I have been sick and relatively useless all week, so I have been pinning my brains out. 

There are a few different categories of people I will be gifting to this year and obviously each category will receive different gifts...


Gifts for Babies and Kids:

The Lap/Crib/Floor Quilt that I developed for my Beginning Quilt Class would make a great and easier-than-you'd-think gift for kids as a floor or crib quilt. I actually also think that I am going to make this is a lap quilt for my Pop who spends a bit of time everyday in his favorite recliner.

I totally love this idea of simple monogrammed onesies for little ones. Two  of my girlfriends have very adorable little baby girls and I could see maybe monogramming a set of 4 onesies as a gift...

 

(I tried finding link, not available!!!!) 

For friends and family that cook and eat:

I love this apron from the book Sew Liberated

I love making homemade marshmallows with my husband and if we cut them up into little hearts or something I think they would look super cute on top of a cup of cocoa...

(I tried finding link, not available!!!!) 

II would love to make a trio of spice blends for my Dad. Actually, I think we are going to use bigger jars and give him our favorite rib, steak, and chicken blends from everything we cook when he comes to visit ...

Oooo Caramel Sauce

We have a certain family member that LOVES ice cream and LOVES candy, and I had the idea of breaking up his/hers favorite candy pieces and putting them in jars so that they had some handy ice cream toppings. This picture kinda of looks like what I'd do ... 

Ideas for My Girlfriends, Sister, and Cousins:

I really love this Lace-edged Scarf as shown by this great blogger. I don't know that I could actually make this, though. It is on my list, but looks like it would take a bit of time to get just-right.

Making some assortment of these home bodycare treats made by a favorite blogger of mine:

Maybe this Anna Maria Horner Art Student Tote...

Maybe I can make each of them one of my simple Pocketed Purse Organizer ...

 

Then of course there are some ideas for me and my Husband: 

I already made 8 of these AWESOME Lined Drawstring Bags from a favorite blogger of mine, Jeni at In Color Order...

I am also going to make us matching Christmas Stockings using this Anna Maria Horner favorite fabric of mine ...

OK there is my Holiday Present line-up for now. I have a couple other ideas in my head, but I am just not sure what I'll get to. What do you guys have planned???? 

HOLLER!

A finished Christmas Stocking!

I finished a Christmas Stocking and I am oh so satisfied!

In my last post, I showed you this finished stocking front:

Well. I am not ENTIRELY happy with it. Notice some dark brown spots on the nice white fabric? Well, it turns out I was burning my fabric! Ogghhh. I was SOOO bummed because I loved working on that stocking and it took soooo long to do because I am slowwww. Some of the hourglass blocks look OK, but there are 3 or 4 that just look bad I haven't yet decided if I can get over it enough to finish the stocking. So in the meantime, I started another stocking last night. 

Before I started the stocking though, I picked up some Kona Cotton from my LFS, Flying Geese:

  (Left: Kona Snow, Right: Kona White)

Then, the stocking making began (again). I started with a new template than the stocking from my last post. I wasn't entirely impressed with the shape of the previous stocking template, so I traced a neighbors stocking from Target and I absolutely love the shape and size:

Then, I cut out some wintery fabrics (same used in last stocking attempt):

I played around with the layout a little bit and finally settled on this one. I decided against the Kona Snow solids I already cut. I think the squares are just too big (4x4) to use an entire white-ish patch:
 

 

Then I did some sewing:

More progress photos:

(All pieced together)

 (Using the template to cut out the stocking)

 

(Made a quilt sandwich and quilted the front of the stocking using a crosshatch pattern)

 (Left to right: Stocking back, lining (2 pieces already sew together, stocking front)

(Sewing the stocking BACK to the stocking FRONT, right sides together. Note that the lining isn't involved in this)

 (The stocking!)

(Shoving the lining down in there. Next time I would definitely tack the lining to the inside of the stocking)

 

  (Sewed up a little something so it actually hangs from the wall. Almost forgot about it, woops)

And then ...

And then ...

(A finished stocking!!! YAY. What a hideous orange wall though. Let's just say that there wall was there when I moved in. It was painted to cover up someone's head going through it)

(Stocking back)

 

I am SO excited. I am pretty sure that the orange background doesn't do the stocking much justice. I plan on making many many more. As of right now, guess what? Another item off the BUCKET LIST! 

 

Things I would do differently:

- Use a smaller scale overall pattern. The 4x4inch blocks were just to big and I didn't get to see as much fabric change as I would have liked too. I guess I would like a stocking more like the one I BURNT in my last post. Woops. 

- Use a little white in the fabric front. I didn't use it intentionally because it looked a little weird on such a big scale, but next time I will.

- Tack the lining to the inside of the stocking so it doesn't move around. I would actually make the lining a little smaller than the stocking too, so it fits in better. 

- Figure out a different cuff. I totally forgot to take pictures of the cuff process because it was so hectic and I messed up a few times.

Overall, I sat and stared at the thing for hours on end figuring out what my next move was going to be. Now that I am totally satisfied with my process and overall result, I think I can whip up new stockings pretty quick!

Check out my Finished Projects Flickr album for more finished projects.

Now I am off to wrap Christmas presents and hopefully finish another stocking by this weekend (so hubby and I each have one).

xoxo,

Lauren