So here are the craft pictures I've been promising ... Christmas stockings.
First, I drew out the stocking shape I wanted on newspaper. I didn't realize until I started cutting my fabric that the newspaper headline said "day cares suffer as parents have to tighten purse strings". Kind of a bummer, eh? See my nice old-fashioned dress-maker's scissors? They belonged to my great auntie. I did a quilting class last winter, and everyone laughed at them ... they all used rotary cutters. The instructor said I wouldn't be able to cut straight lines or small details without a rotary cutter. Hah! My great auntie did her share of fancy sewing and quilting LONG BEFORE rotary cutters. These babies are razor sharp, and those long blades aimed straight cut really impressive straight lines. But I digress ...
After that first stocking, I turned my newspaper pattern over. A photo of a local children's choir was definately more cheery! And here we are ... a whole bunch of fabric stockings cut out and ready to be sewn. Since the stockings are for my office staff and volunteers, I felt obligated to do plaid ones for the gentlemen ... the little old-fashioned lady carollers just didn't look masculine enough.
Here I am sewing stocking halves together. Have you ever tried to snap a picture with your non-dominant hand and sew something at the same time? No easy feat!
Here are the sewn-together stockings with seams clipped, turned right side out, and pressed ... ready for ...
... adding the cuffs. The stockings themselves are woven fabric, but I used some inexpensive white jersey knit fabric for the cuffs.
Next step was top-stitching the folded cuffs, and then ...
... adding bias tape loops for hanging the stockings up.
A final pressing, and ...
First, I drew out the stocking shape I wanted on newspaper. I didn't realize until I started cutting my fabric that the newspaper headline said "day cares suffer as parents have to tighten purse strings". Kind of a bummer, eh? See my nice old-fashioned dress-maker's scissors? They belonged to my great auntie. I did a quilting class last winter, and everyone laughed at them ... they all used rotary cutters. The instructor said I wouldn't be able to cut straight lines or small details without a rotary cutter. Hah! My great auntie did her share of fancy sewing and quilting LONG BEFORE rotary cutters. These babies are razor sharp, and those long blades aimed straight cut really impressive straight lines. But I digress ...After that first stocking, I turned my newspaper pattern over. A photo of a local children's choir was definately more cheery! And here we are ... a whole bunch of fabric stockings cut out and ready to be sewn. Since the stockings are for my office staff and volunteers, I felt obligated to do plaid ones for the gentlemen ... the little old-fashioned lady carollers just didn't look masculine enough.Here I am sewing stocking halves together. Have you ever tried to snap a picture with your non-dominant hand and sew something at the same time? No easy feat!Here are the sewn-together stockings with seams clipped, turned right side out, and pressed ... ready for ...... adding the cuffs. The stockings themselves are woven fabric, but I used some inexpensive white jersey knit fabric for the cuffs.Next step was top-stitching the folded cuffs, and then ...... adding bias tape loops for hanging the stockings up.A final pressing, and ...A gaggle (herd? bunch? coven?) of festive finished Christmas stockings. The entire project took maybe an hour and a half, and cost less than twenty dollars .
And here are the stockings hanging in our office. I'm not so sure about this location ... on the bulletin board under our "donors' tree" ... but I didn't choose where they would be hung. My office staff and volunteers all came in today (Saturday) to do the Christmas decorating, which I really appreciated as last year, I decorated the place on my own and didn't feel particularly festive about it. (I AM a Scrooge at heart ... mostly ... don't forget!) I arranged lunch for everyone, so it was quite the party atmosphere. My office has really changed over the past year ... for the better! And my staff and volunteers really deserve Christmas stockings (and the goodies Santa is going to be putting in them).
Okay, I've hung up my snowflake at home, and done the office party thing ... can I disappear until after Christmas now???
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