Stockings!

It's Christmas Eve!  I finally got our stockings done and hung!  Right in time for Santa.  I love how they turned out!  I made them out of sweaters; the green one was part of my wardrobe,  until a few years ago,  and I have been saving it for this idea since then! I picked up the red and cream sweaters at a thrift store.  Hobby Lobby has the fabulous Chevron fabric.  For six stockings, it cost me less than $20!  I had to enlist the help of my very talented mom for this project.  We spent an entire Saturday sewing stockings.  I managed to snap a few photos with my phone as we went so I can show you how we made them.   I completely forgot to take a picture of the sweaters before!  I was so excited to get cutting. Before pictures are so fun too.  Sorry  : )  
First we drew and cut a stocking pattern out of tracing paper:  

Then I cut all my front and back pieces.  I was going to use the sweaters for both the front and the back, but after sewing one, I learned it was going to be too hard.  The sweater fabric is too thick and stretchy, so the finished stocking didn't hold its shape well.  Plus, I would probably need to sew liners in to help it not stretch and loose its shape after Santa fills it with goodies.  More work.  So I un stitched the sweater front and back stocking and went to plan B.  Fabric back, sweater front.  IMPORTANT:  As you cut the pieces make sure all the stockings will hang the same direction!  Unless of course it wouldn't bother you to have them hanging different directions. : )
I wanted the chevron fabric to fold over,  so we had to figure out how to sew it on and have it face the right direction.  The hardest part about these stockings is all the right side/wrong side sewing.  I hope this little tutorial will help!
Cut the stocking pieces.  (Remember to pay attention to which direction they will hang!  We messed up on one and had to re-do it.)

 Sew a piece (same sizes) of the chevron fabric to the top.  This will be the fold over.  Lay the stocking pieces right side down.  The 'fold over' piece will go right side to wrong side.  Sew along the top.

 It should look like this after it is sewn and flipped up.  (Sorry this pic is blurry)

 Then iron it so the 'fold over' piece is up.  Also fold over and iron the raw edge.   

Next, put your two stocking pieces right sides together and pin.  The 'fold over' pieces at the top should be wrong sides together or right sides out as shown here.  (Confusing I know!)

 Now sew around the stocking. Do not sew the 'fold over' pieces yet!  

Turn the stocking inside out and think "Hey, it looks like a stocking!  Cute!"

 At this point all the right side/wrong side starts to make sense.  See how the 'fold over' pieces will fold over and show the right side?  Pin the edges.

 Sew along the two edges.

Now fold over the 'fold over' pieces.  And Ta-Da!  It's a stocking!

 I did four with the chevron folded over and 2 with the sweater folded over.  For the two with the sweater folded over, I added some lace and poofy ball trim.  And I totally hot glued it on!  First I hot glued the trim to the lace, then I hot glued the lace to the stocking!  It looked way to hard to sew on and I was all sewed out : )  I think the hot glue will work just fine!

   Last, I sewed some ribbon loops for hanging. 

 (You can check out my stocking holder here.)

 This is what the backs look like:

I could not have figured all this out and got them done without my mom, she really made it happen. : )  She's a genius!  Now deciding who's is who's has been a hot topic around here!  I love them all. I'll probably add initials to each one somehow, but not by tomorrow.  We'll do something more temporary this year. Can't wait for Santa to put some treats in them! 

 I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!!!

We're hoping for snow!!