December 9th - by 10 pm the amount of snow we had received since 11 am was unbelievable.
The advantage of a week with snow: you can take care of your Christmas mail and I finally made the overdue stockings. I had made Helen and Sarah's when they were still living in our household. I had taken a class were I learned to do special stitches with my Pfaff. How many years ago was that? Several years later I made another "batch": Ben, William and Wade. Sarah's children were not yet on the horizon. Well, they are now. Caleb is 5 years old.
I found that they are not that difficult to make. By the third one it went fast. I started with the template I had made years ago on a grocery store paper bag. It would be easy though to draw a shape you like yourself. It's just good to keep it to make future family members exactly the same.
Cut out the shape from quilt batting. The inside of the stocking I cut a little larger. Make sure that you cut a second one with the fabric reversed. The outside of the back can be one piece too. The three layers of the back I just quilted criss-cross.
Then I covered the shape of the stocking just like you would make a crazy quilt. There are many tutorials on the internet but here is one youtube you might like.
When front and back are layered and quilted, all you have to do is put right sides together and sew around, turn.
Now the cuff!
Of course I had to ask my daughter what the children's favorite colors are. There dinner plates and cups are color coded! They know who's is who's.
Cut the piece double wide to go all around the stocking. Of course thinking of the seam allowance. Write the name how you would like it on a piece of paper, folded in half so that you also have support on the back. Position it.
The positioning was the hardest part so I would not end up with the name upside down. Nothing like making it visual for me.
Ready to do the "writing" with the free motion foot and the feed dogs down. I tried on a piece of scrap how wide the zig zack stitch should be. Go slow! Sometimes I even go forth and back when I was too fast and a line was too skimpy. You don't want the fabric to show through.
Sew the side seam of the cuff, iron and pin to attach.
Again, I have to be visual. I put it round the outside first with the raw edge up to position it just perfect. Then I turn it inside and pin it. It's easy to forget to insert the hanger. I spread the ends of the hanger a little apart and around the corner a little to the back. That way the stocking hangs better.
There was a problem. Years earlier I had made Wade's stocking the other way.
It took some doing but here is the row now.
Unfortunately the Virginia Tech fabric is now a bit upside down but I don't think my son-in-law minds.
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