Christmas Stockings Tutorial
December 5, 2011
Two years ago I knew I wanted to make our family Christmas stockings. My Mom and I were out shopping at fabric stores and I fell in love with this fabric, but it wasn’t until last year that I finally got them made. I went ahead and made 5 stockings even though we didn’t have a third baby yet (I guess my subconscious knew she’d be coming soon!).
A friend of mine loved them and asked me to make a set for her kids. We’ve been planning them since March, I swear, and I was finally able to get them done last week. I really love how they came out and I’m seriously considering making more for us!
I appliqued each child’s initial to the cuff of the stocking with plain black fabric.
They just make everything more festive!
(I’m also making a tree skirt, so stay tuned for that!)
And because of the way they’re designed, when they’re stuffed for Christmas morning, you can stand the cuff up to make them a little taller to accommodate all the stocking goodies!
It doesn’t take much to make your own set of personalized stockings! They’re also fast to whip up, I think this tutorial took me longer to write than it took to make all 5!
The finished size is 17.5″ long from top of folded cuff to toe, 21.5″ unfolded, and 6.5″ wide.
For each stocking you’ll need:
2 outside pieces
2 lining pieces
2 cuff pieces
1 6″ piece of ribbon
applique (optional)
This is actually a great project for fat quarters! The stockings I made for us came entirely from fat quarters and 4 out of the 5 of these did as well. To make your stockings fairly cheaply, and to have them coordinate instead of match exactly, search for a fat quarter bundle on etsy. It takes 1 FQ for each stocking, and 1 produces 2 cuffs.
First, iron the cuff pieces in half.
Then iron on your applique. For these, I used Pharmacy font and traced it from MS Word at size 550. Put the fold on the bottom and the raw edges on the top before ironing the applique. I know this seems backwards, but trust me, it needs to go on the top half. To center mine when the cuff is down, I placed the letters 3/8″ above the fold.
Then applique around the letter. If you need more help on this, see my applique tutorial and the tutorial on appliqueing curves.
Now decide which way your stockings will hang and with right sides together, sew the cuff piece with the applique to the front stocking piece. When you do this, make sure the applique is facing the foot of the stocking.
Then sew the same lining piece to the other side of the cuff with right sides together.
You’ll have something that looks like this:
Press your seams to the middle.
Repeat with the back pieces.
Lay the front and back together with right sides facing each other, lining up your cuff pieces.
Take the 6″ of ribbon and make it into a loop.
Place it between your lining layers on the BACK side (heel side) of the stocking with the loop on the inside. Line it up right where the lining meets the cuff. Pin in place.
Pin the stocking pieces together. I usually don’t pin things, but I wanted to make sure I kept this looking nice.
To sew them together, I started in the “sole” of the lining. I sew the lining together at 3/8″ seam allowance and when I get to the cuff, I gradually move it over to 1/4″ seam allowance. I do this to make sure the lining fits perfectly inside the stocking when put together and it doesn’t lump or bulge.
Leave a hole a few inches wide along the bottom of the lining to turn the stocking through.
To make sure your curves lay flat, you need to clip them. I cheat and use pinking shears.
Turn the stocking through your hole and iron everything flat.
Sew the hole in the lining closed, stuff the lining into the outer pieces, and you’re done!!
If you’re making more than one, I recommend doing them assembly-line style. It goes faster!
The Hubs and I had great fun creating words out of these! No words can be made from our initials, so we got a good chuckle before I mailed them.
Download the pattern here:
Posted in Tutorials
December 5th, 2011 at 11:47 PM
Nice work! Thanks for the instructions. I have made stockings but just can’t seem to get the boot part right. I am exited to try yours out!
- Lexie >
December 6th, 2011 at 7:42 AM
Thanks for the tutorial. I was laying in bed last night thinking that I would like to make stockings for us and now I can!!
December 6th, 2011 at 8:51 AM
Awesome! I made some last year, but they bunched all over the place. Guess you live and learn. Good luck with the tree skirt, mine turned out better than my stockings!
December 6th, 2011 at 2:35 PM
They are adorable. I love that line of Riley Blake fabric too!! I also really like how you did the aplique letters on the other set. Great job!!
December 6th, 2011 at 11:24 PM
I just ordered some fabric. I have been searching for a stocking pattern since last Christmas. This is perfect. Can’t wait to get started.
December 8th, 2011 at 3:35 AM
Thank you so much! I made a stocking using your tutorial tonight, and everything went perfect!
December 13th, 2011 at 7:49 AM
Good morning I found your beautiful blog today. I’m starting to do patchwork and would like to join your blog.
I’m from Brazil, see my handwork.
http://tearpiaocupacional.blogspot.com/
December 16th, 2011 at 5:18 AM
Just want to say a big Thank You for this tutorial! I have had my Michael Miller Christmas fabric for about 11 months and for the last 4 of those I have been staring at it thinking “I must make some stockings”. Googling a hundred tutorials, yours was by far the easiest, just lovely photos too!
I’ve just completed 3 for the children and have another 3 to go!
December 19th, 2011 at 10:56 AM
Hi. Thank you so much for your tutorial. I googled alot of different tutorials, and most of them were to hard for me to understand. I loved yours and my cute little niece is going to get the stocking at Christmas Day!!!
December 21st, 2011 at 4:21 PM
Thanks so much for this! I just finished two and have four more to go. This was super easy to follow.
April 14th, 2012 at 4:53 PM
Thanks for such a easy tutorial! I’ve completed one and have three to go. I’ve been wanting to make stockings for the past 2.5 years since my son was born and never got to it and found this tutorial this past year and thought it would be easy to follow and it was. Now that I’m expecting #2 I was determined to get them done before he’s born!!
thanks again!
September 21st, 2012 at 9:50 AM
Fantastic tutorial. I’ve finished one and have three more to go. Simple patter and great directions make for a fun, easy project! Thanks.
October 27th, 2012 at 1:33 AM
I’m SO excited to make stockings this year, but I’m worried about the shape. Any suggestions for a pattern?
October 27th, 2012 at 2:42 AM
At the very bottom of the post is a link to download the pattern I made and used!
November 1st, 2012 at 8:26 PM
I’m wanting to make some of these, but before I order my fabric I just wanted to clarify…. For 1 stocking I will need one fat quarter for the 2 boot pieces, one fat quarter for 2 cuff pieces.
So to make FOUR stockings I need a total of 6 fat quarters (not including the lining fabric), correct?
November 2nd, 2012 at 3:07 PM
It depends on what you want to do for your fabrics and the cuffs. 6 fat quarters would lend you 4 different boot pieces and 2 cuffs each used twice.
November 14th, 2012 at 1:45 PM
This is probably a dumb Q, but what if you want to add quilt batting to the stocking. Do you add it to the outside fabric on the wrong side?
November 14th, 2012 at 7:05 PM
That’s not a dumb question! And yes, you add it to the wrong side of your main outside fabric. I hope you share pics of your finished stockings!
November 18th, 2012 at 9:33 PM
I just made four stockings with your pattern. Thanks so much for your generosity. They are super cute and were very fun to make.
November 22nd, 2012 at 1:57 AM
I am so excited and grateful to have found this post! We recently adopted 2 little boys and I just realized last week that they need Christmas stockings! I decided to make new ones for the whole family since our current ones are store bought and kinda dorky:) I am a very amateur seamstress but I’ve made two so far and it was easy. They turned out great! THANKYOU!!!!!!!
November 22nd, 2012 at 6:18 PM
Thanks for this! I had to make 13 stockings this year for my massive family and this made it so easy and fun! Love it!
November 25th, 2012 at 2:57 PM
Thanks for the tutorial! Last year I attempted to make stockings and I wish I had had this tutorial then. I linked to your tutorial on my blog; if you feel like, it check out my stockings. Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!
November 28th, 2012 at 12:51 PM
This is exactly what I was hoping to find! Thanks and happy holidays!
December 2nd, 2012 at 7:37 AM
I just followed these directions & my cuff isn’t an actual cuff. I’m not sure where I went wrong??
December 2nd, 2012 at 8:31 PM
I’m not sure, Shawna. Did you fold it down to make it a cuff? The piece itself should just fold in half.
December 3rd, 2012 at 1:38 PM
I am what you would call a sewing dummy. I’ve never sewn a thing in my life, but after the birth of our triplets last year, decided to go out and buy a sewing machine on black Friday a few weeks ago. I’ve stitched a couple of simple things and wanted to make stockings so badly for our kids. I thought it was impossible, especially when I read about doing an applique- but I just finished the 1st one and I have to say I am really impressed with myself! The tutorial and all the picures you posted really helped! Thank you SO much! I’m a fan!
December 7th, 2012 at 4:12 PM
Thanks for the tutorial. I’m just learning to use a sewing machine- and this is totally doable. This is the first year my husband and I are doing xmas at our house and my first baby’s first christmas. So we needed stockings. We decided to use old t-shirts: one we no longer use but have sentimental value to us. Not as pretty or in Christmas colors- but very meaningful, free, and full of history. And a great way to use our old shirts
December 8th, 2012 at 4:52 PM
Thanks a bunch for this tutorial. It has been five years since I made a stocking (for my Grandson). I needed to make one for a new family member this year and forgot how to do the “turn inside out” parts. I WAS NOT looking forward to “unsewing” and this saved me.
December 12th, 2012 at 3:17 PM
Great tutorial! Just finished making two stockings for a couple who got married this year. Your directions were terrific and the pictures really helped as well. Thanks for sharing!
December 13th, 2012 at 1:27 AM
This is awesome!!!!
December 14th, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Great tutorial, just finished three, one more to go! Made two with burlap and red/white stripe ticking, other two with linen and same ticking.
Material choices work great for Country Christmas theme!
Thanks
December 19th, 2012 at 12:18 PM
Thank you so much! I just finished mine and decided to use a minky fabric for the cuff and appliqué my son and dogs full names. They turned out beautiful and will last a lifetime!
January 14th, 2013 at 12:17 AM
Thanks for the awesome tutorial! I posted about it:
http://craftynerdynurse.blogspot.com/2013/01/christmas-stockings.html