Tropical Holiday Stockings

Hi Everyone!

Here is the first item from my Christmas To-So list!  My parents moved to Florida last year and for Christmas we realized we didn't have any fun stockings for tropical weather.  My mother and I went to Joann and picked up these great fabrics meant for shirts but decided to make stockings out of them.  Here is the how to with some pictures below.  Note this is only one stocking of six that I have made, but I am pretty pleased with the results!

I have always liked this template from over at Positively Splendid.  She kindly posted the template that's easy to use and renders a stocking of a decent size!

First thing your have to do is cut out all the pieces.  I cut out 3 right sided face up pieces and 3 left sided face up pieces to make three stockings.  You will then need 3 pieces of fabric for backing and 6 cutouts from a thinner batting.    Before cutting, you can pre-wash but regardless you must iron and starch (I used extra strength) to get the best cuts and finishes.

For the basting spray, I chose a generic one from the craft store and it worked just fine, even forgiving enough when I have to move the pieces around a bit.  I set up a plastic bag underneath so the table would not get sprayed.  Place one of the patterned fabric pieces face down and spray lightly with batting adhesive.  Then place batting piece within the lines drawn on the fabric.  Spray the batting now and line up your backing with the batting and the lines on the front piece.

 

I decided I wanted to try a plain block pattern for the basting.  I just lined up my yard stick to make the diagonal lines overlapping.  I decided to go ahead and double over the top portion of the stocking as well so I could sew that at the same time. 

Then it's off to the sewing machine.  Even though the basting spray does a nice job of holding the fabric to the batting, I still pinned the edges of each side just to be sure it stayed as flat as possible.  All you have to do is sew each line once.  I think it helps to do one set of lines first all the way down, tying knots as you finish each line and then move to the perpendicular set of lines.

Here is what the backing looked like after I finished the basting.  It doesn't show too well on the front but you get the general idea.  Once you have one ride sided and one left sided pieces basted, you can line them up, pin them (make sure the hems will line up nicely), and sew them together.  I ran around the edges of the stocking twice to make sure it was secure.  I trimmed the excess fabric off and popped it inside out and voila!

One down, five to do.  The majority of the time was actually spent cutting out the fabric pieces and tying knots during basting, so once you get the prep out of the way it's not so time-consuming!  Hope you enjoyed this post and end up making some stockings of your own!