Sewing Christmas Stockings

My granddaughter arrived much earlier than expected forcing me to scrambled to make sure she had her own stocking for Christmas.  I’ve been making Christmas stockings for everyone in the family since the first Christmas my husband and I spent together. Wow, that was 30 years ago. When my 2 beautiful girls were born I made stockings for them. I waited and made them the same year so that the stocking would match. We had a fireplace at that time and I knew they would hang there for many years to come.

I had several years to rest until my first grandson came. I was so excited, making a Christmas stocking was one of the first things I thought about doing for him. He was born in September so I had some time to think about the stocking. Christmas material was already out so I started early with a large range of choices for my material. I loved how his stocking turned out and couldn’t wait to make more!

My next grandson was born early and so close to Christmas I didn’t get his done until the following year. That year I was able to get to know  him, he loved his sweets, and when I found the candy material I thought it fit him perfectly. I found the peppermint buttons at JoAnn’s. I loved the way the addition of these embellishments made the stocking look 3D. Needless to say he was one when I gave it to him and he tried to pull them off to eat them, so my daughter had to hang it up high and just out of reach.

It was just a couple of years later when my next grandson was born and I didn’t have a clue as to what I was going to do for his Christmas stocking. I just knew I wanted it different and special like the others that I have tried to do over the years. You have to understand that he lives with two large dogs, one being a very hairy husky. When I found the Christmas puppies and the fake fur my creative juices, well let’s just say my cup runneth over…The look on my daughters face when I gave it to her was priceless. She loved the fake fur. She has been a dog lover all her life (she thought about being a dog groomer at one point) so she was excited with the Christmas Stocking as well.

Then came my granddaughter.  Do you run out of ideas after a while? NO WAY,  Inspiration comes from each precious child and their parents. Again I turned to Craftsy.com and found a stocking pattern(download available). I noticed when I made the last grandson’s stocking it seemed the stockings were getting smaller over the years so I thought I had better find a better way to do it than just eyeballing the size…  When I got done with hers you could have put her inside. Not just because she was arrived early and was only 2.5 lbs, but because it turned out to be SO BIG!!! Bigger than everyone else’s made in the past. Oops, well I have left it the last two years just as it was but with another granddaughter on the way and me having to make another stocking soon I am going to have to shrink it down just a tad. Kids are competitive enough as it is, I don’t want this Granna to be part of that.

I will write part 2 when the new one (granddaughter and her Christmas stocking are here.) I will explain my ideas for shrinking the existing one and the inspirations for the next.