Quilted Christmas Stockings

To make these Christmas stockings, I followed a pattern from Moda Bakeshop. The pattern is "His and Her Scrappy Christmas Stockings" by Nicole Willmore. Click here to see the original free pattern.

I used her pattern, and adjusted it a bit. I wanted the stockings to be the exact same shape as the others that I already have, so I used my others as a template to draw up my own pattern, and used that for my four scrappy stockings. Years ago, I made six stockings for my family. As my kids have married, I knew that I wasn't going to go back and cross-stitch stockings for their spouses, so I wanted to come up with something else, and these scrappy stockings fit the bill. I like the idea of having the stockings being a little mix-and-match, so the fact that they are different designs from the originals doesn't bother me a bit. In fact I sortof like it... it seems to represent the phases our family has gone through.

You may notice the sad shape that my cutting board is in. It has some battle scars from previous projects (which may or may not have involved kids with markers). I have a newer one, but I love this little one that fits in the corner of my counter so well. So, ignore the scars and the marks. 

The Moda pattern is great to follow along with. I'll just add a few of my own photos here and some of the changes or adjustments I made. The original pattern makes two stockings. My stockings each measure about 16" long and 9-1/2" wide at the foot of the stocking.

On the Moda ingredient list, you'll notice that it uses a jelly roll. I found a fun Christmas-y one at our local quilt shop, and you can find others online at the Fat Quarter Shop. My jelly roll had enough fabric to make four stockings, plus I have scads left over that I can make a cute Christmas throw with. I went through all my fabric strips and laid out 12 (not 10, like the Moda pattern says) of my favorites, in the order that I wanted them on the stockings.

Once I had them in the right order, I cut each of the 44" strips in half so that they each measured 22". You'll only use 1/2 of each strip, so you can put away the others halves for another project.

Then, I took each 22" strip and cut a long diagonal along the long edge. I kept one end at 2-1/2 inches, and wedged it down to 1" on the other end.

Then, I sewed each of the strips together -- a wide end next to a narrow end, etc. This is where it becomes really scrappy. Don't worry about ends fitting perfectly, or if it looks a bit skeewompus. It will look fine when you continue on.

I ironed all of the seams flat and laid it on my piece of Warm and Natural (see original Moda pattern ingredient list).

To attach it to the Warm and Natural batting, start with the bottom strip, and where there are seams, sew along them with any decorative stitch.

I then measured the quilted fabric and cut it in half, for the two stockings, making sure my stocking pattern would fit nicely on each side.

Now for the coordinating pieces of fabric (check the Moda pattern ingredient list). The layout is a little tricky to follow, but this is how I did it. First, I doubled over the end of the piece of fabric so that I could cut my two stocking lining pieces out.

After cutting out the lining pieces, I laid one more pattern out for the back of the stocking.

With the remainder of the fabric, I cut three more pieces: 7 x 13-1/2, 9 x 3-1/4, and 2-1/2 x 6. The larger of the three, the cuff piece, may change depending on the size of your stocking. I changed mine from the original pattern.

I took the medium-sized piece (9 x 3-1/4) and sewed that along the top of my quilted strips, right sides together. It won't match exactly with the rest of the strips, because of the scrappiness of the edges, but it will all work out in the end.

I ironed that top piece down and then laid out my stocking pattern, pinned it, and cut it out.

Then, I placed the stocking back on the stocking front (strippy piece), pinned them, and sewed them together, right sides facing each other.

I also sewed the stocking lining pieces together, right sides together, leaving about a 2" opening along the long straight edge of the stocking, for turning later. I trimmed and clipped the curves so that the stocking would turn easily, being really careful not to clip the seams.

To make the loop, I used the 2-1/2" x 6" piece of fabric. I folded it in half length-wise, and pressed. Then I unfolded it and folded the outside edges into the middle, and pressed again. I sewed along the entire long edge, using about 1/8" seam allowance.

Then, I took the large cuff piece and folded it in half and sewed the 7" edge, right sides together.

I turned half of it so that I had a cuff folded in half... like the picture below.

I placed the raw edge along the raw edge of the stocking at the top.

Then, I pinned it with the seam in the back, or along the seam of the stocking. To add the loop, I folded the loop fabric in half, centered it over the side seam, and then pinned.

Then, I placed the quilted stocking inside of the lining stocking and pinned all along the top, being careful to pin the loop exactly where it should be.

I sewed carefully along the top, and then pulled the quilted stocking through the opening of the lining stocking.

And end to end, this is what the stocking looks like. Sew along the lining opening to close the hole.

Push the lining stocking down into the quilted stocking, and iron flat.

And I embroidered the names on the cuff. The green ones below show my son-in-law's names embroidered on them, and the red ones had yet to be done in this photo.

And now, I need to come up with the grandchild version, which will be a little simpler (because I'm hoping for loads and loads of grandbabies, and I want to make sure I keep it easy enough to keep up with them! :)