Love, Laura Lee: let's make kyle a stocking! {scrappy christmas stocking tutorial

Twenty-nine years ago, back in 1983, I made Tom's and my Christmas stockings out of fabric scraps. When baby Bradley arrived, I continued with that tradition. Each new child that came along sent me digging through my scraps again to fashion another stocking.

They are all similar, yet they are all different. I wasn't a quilter back then, so I just sewed the strips together, put a back on, added a hanger, and called it finished. Over the years, I've thought about maybe taking them all apart and quilting them. I usually entertain that notion for about two minutes before talking myself out of all that extra work.

I've had several people ask how I construct these stockings, which prompted me to do this tutorial. Really, they are very simple. I'll show you step by step what I did to make Kyle's stocking today. Last year I had three new ones to make, but only finished two. So Kyle was way overdue for his stocking.

Bad Lollee!

I used original fabrics from his very adorable nursery which Abby and Jonathan had to dismantle last week when they began packing to move to Lesotho. Since they can't take his nursery with them, I knew I would preserve some of his fabrics in his stocking.

These are the original fabrics. I cut all the strips anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide. I like to use varying widths.

These are fabrics I pulled from my stash to complement the original fabrics.

I cut all the strips and laid them out to get a general idea of color placement. I placed a completed stocking over the top to make sure I would be able to cut the right shape when I got finished.

At that point I just started sewing strips together.

Using Hannah's stocking as a pattern, I cut around the part I had completed, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

This is the bottom half...ready to start the top half. I pretty much copied Hannah's layout, just to save myself some time. Normally, I try to make an original layout. But after eleven stockings some repetition is ok.

Because I say so.

The top strips run vertically, with a horizontal strip at the bottom. Another horizontal strip will run along the very top. It obviously needs to be trimmed along the top, using the other stocking as a pattern.

I like to embellish with some ric-rac or lace or other gender appropriate trim. For Kyle, I used this spunky ribbon that Abby picked out for another project. All the colors work with his nursery colors. I just sewed it right over a seam between two strips.

At the very top, I embroider everyone's initials. So here are Kyle's, with the St. Clair initial larger in the center.

I chose a dotty red fabric for the back of his stocking. Just be sure to lay the right sides together in order to cut the back. Now sew the front to the back using a 1/4 inch seam, leaving the top open.

Turn inside out and press the stocking.

I turned the top edge down and used a decorative stitch to hem it.

For a hanger, I just used a tie from the bumper pads. But all you have to do is cut a strip of fabric about 4 inches long and one inch wide. Fold it neatly to the center lengthwise and create a strip about 3/8 inch wide finished.