diy christmas stockings

Clockwise from top left: traced letters (and Chinese characters) in reverse on fusible webbing get ironed into place on stocking pieces; then the letters are cut out “in reverse,” with negative space pieces reserved for ironing on (like the circle in the lowercase letter “d”); a colored-felt piece is ironed on top of the cut out; and voila! a reverse-applique is born

After searching around on the trusty internet for ideas, I fell in love with Teal & Lime’s Helvetica Stockings. Her instructions were really easy to follow, but I’ve included some photos above to show the process. I started by cutting out stocking pieces from felt (I used an old stocking to make a template, then cut felt liners about 6″ longer using the same template so that the liner pieces could be folded down and made into cuffs). Then, I printed out large letters (or Chinese characters, in my case) and traced them in reverse onto fusible interfacing (basically this stuff is like double-stick tape for fabric).

After tracing the letters, I then ironed the interfacing onto one side of my pre-cut stockings (I just used an old stocking as my template for making stocking pieces). Then, using super-sharp scissors (these are great for detailed work), I cut out the letters. Bear in mind that you’ll need to save the “negative space” pieces in your letters, like the circle in the lowercase letter “d” pictured. Once all of the letters were cut out, I rearranged the “negative space” pieces onto the stocking before ironing on a colored piece of felt (the color that will show through the cutout letters).

You’ll also need basic sewing skills and a sewing machine to sew together the liners and the stocking pieces. However, as I’ve learned from my previous sewing experiences, sewing is a lot more intimidating than it actually is, and mistakes in fabric are pretty easily hidden.

My soon-to-be nephew’s name is blurred out because he’s not coming until March (shhh)

In the end, I made 11 stockings in all for all of my extended family members. I used light gray and white glitter felt so that I could choose almost any color for the lettering and make it pop. For my sister’s family, I used her and her husband’s alma mater’s colors. For Casa del Gravy, I went with a pink-green-yellow-blue multicolor theme to echo the colors of multicolored Christmas lights. My parents (the Chinese characters you see are “Gong Gong” and “Puo Puo,” which are the names for grandma and grandpa) and sister got traditional red and green for their names. When the stockings are together, they look cohesive but with fun pops of color, and separately, each “household” has its own color scheme. All told, the project took me a few evenings to complete, but with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” blaring in the background, the time flew. Of course, sometimes it’s hard to sing with your eyes closed AND sew.

For more detailed instructions and another amazing example of these stockings, check out Teal & Lime’s tutorial here.