Tuesday, December 11, 2012

DIY Christmas Stockings

 My husband and I have been married for 6 years and we have never done Christmas stockings. I have always wanted to get us some but the designer in me could never decide what direction to take. How do you accommodate changing holiday decorations and a growing family? My holiday decorations I have now are silver, white, gray, and gold, but what if I want to do traditional red and green someday? How many stockings do I purchase so as our family grows they all match? These are the questions that go through a designers head. I'm crazy, I know. So, with my daughter being old enough this Christmas to understand a little more about what is going on, I wanted to start some Christmas traditions, one of them being Christmas stockings. I decided to make my own, and I bought enough fabric to make additional stockings as we have more children. I even have them all cut out and in a ziplock bag ready to be sewn. :) Anyway, after all my deliberating here is what I came up with:
  
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I went with all white stockings. That way I can change up my holiday decor and they will go with any color scheme.  I used the same linen and fur fabric for each stocking but added unique white touches to each of them. For my husbands I cut a deer head silhouette out of felt and sewed it on.
 
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On mine, I hot glued a bunch of pearls on it. Yes, it took me a while, but I think it was totally worth it. I love how it turned out.
 
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For my daughters, I found this really cute tulle flower trim at JoAnns. I sewed three strips of it on in a row. It would be cute to do it from top to bottom of the stocking, but the trim was a little pricey so I kept it simple. 
 
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The last one is for our unnamed baby boy that we will meet in March, hence the no letter. I cut out a bunch of random sized circles in white felt and hot glued them on, which also took a lot of time. Speaking of the letters, I debated on whether to do mine and my husbands actual initials or do M and D for mom and dad. Since our kids will be calling us "Mom" and "Dad" I went with M and D, but I have had a few people question it, so now I am doubting myself. I would love to hear your opinions. What names do you put on your stockings?
 
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 I am so excited with how they all turned out! I tried to keep the girl ones feminine and the boy ones more masculine. Here is the link to the pattern I used for the stockings.
 
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And since we don't have a mantle, I just cut a branch off a bush in our back yard, wrapped an artificial evergreen garland around it, and hung it with some ribbon. A very inexpensive and fun way to hang your stockings.