Super Easy Felt Stocking

When I was in grades 2 and 3 I had the best teacher ever.  His name was Mr. Hambleton.  Sadly he passed away this year but I know that I'm not the only person out there who looks back fondly on the years spent with him.

Mr. Hambleton empowered his students to be creative, to use their imaginations, and to make their own choices.  When I look back on those years I can hardly believe the things he got us to do.  Our class was doing pottery (painted and in a kiln) and macrame while the other classes were still using crayons. 

One of the best, and most useful, crafts we did was Christmas stockings.  So...if I could make this in Grade 2 then you can definitely do it now.

Here's the one that I made for my baby sister when I was in grade 3, the one I made for myself in grade 2 is lost in the mountain of Christmas stuff at my mom's house but I still use it every year.

The stitching is a bit wonky in some parts, but come one, I was only 8 years old~

If you're ready to make your own felt stocking here are the supplies that you'll need:




You might want to add some pins and a chalk pen or other erasable marker too.

Steps:
1)Decide which colour will be your front and which your back.  Draw the outline of a stocking shape onto the piece of felt for your back.  My felt pieces were .3 metres (12 inches) wide but you can make these any size you want.

While you're at it you can cut a small rectangle for a hanger.  None of these measurements are exact.  Mine is about 1" X 6".

2)Place your backing felt on top of the piece you will use for the front of your stocking.  Trace around the back.  Now measure an inch in so that this piece will be slightly smaller.  Cut out the front of your stocking.

3) Stack your pieces with the front on top and the hanger in between in one corner.

4) This next step isn't really necessary, especially if you're doing this with kids, but I didn't want to be known my whole life for wonky stitches so I measured everything out for a blanket stitch.  I measured a half inch in from the edge and marked it with my chalk pen, and then I placed a pin in the felt every half inch so that I'd known where to place my stitches.

You can find a blanket stitch tutorial here .

5)Now all that's left is to stitch it up with your yarn, (you'll need a needle with a big enough eye to fit the yarn though, a darning needle will usually work) and then decorate it with fabric paint.  I used a nice glittery silver to pick up on the glittery green yarn I used.



It's still a little bit wonky but I think I'm getting better~

Oh!  Of course, I missed one step because it's still pretty early, but don't forget to fill it with lots of fun little things.  We always get a mandarin orange at the very bottom.  Does anyone else do that?  I think my mom told me once that the orange represents a gold coin or something like that.  It's become a tradition in our family in any case.

This is the first of a month full of Christmas crafting so make sure to come back each week for fun new Christmassy projects~

Please don't forget to vote for my dress in the Burdastyle Party Through the Decades Competition.

I'll be posting this project at the linky parties throughout the week so make sure to visit the linky party tab up top to check out all of the fun ideas.

By the way...did you notice that there's a new tab up top???  If you've made a scarf or something else with your spool knitter, make sure to take part in the Spool Party.  It's open throughout all of December!

Have a crafty week!