From Thrifted Sweater to Christmas Stocking

The Christmas stocking was never part of my childhood holiday traditions.  In its place, my grandmother always gave us a "goodie box", a cardboard box, covered in pretty wrapping paper, filled to overflowing with yummy treats...a box of life savers (remember those?), oranges, home-made fudge, candy canes, Christmas cookies, etc... My mother eventually took over the tradition, and my children now receive "goodie boxes" from their grandmother. This year, however, I decided it would be fun to add the tradition of a Christmas stocking. .After gathering dozens of little things to fill 10 stockings, I'm now questioning how "fun" it really is...well, not really. They were a lot of work to fill, but I think my efforts will be worth it.  I'm excited to see the faces of each Little as they discover the treats buried deep in their stockings on Christmas day.

Not having ever done stockings before, we had no stockings, and I was a little overwhelmed by the thought of coming up with ten of them.  Then the idea hit me...thrifted sweaters...perfect!  I did a bit of googling and quickly realized that I wasn't the only one to come up with this idea.  I found lots of images and tutorials of lovely cable-knit stockings, cashmere stockings, elaborately embellished stockings...all very beautiful.  I especially liked the stockings in  this tutorial, which I loosely followed.  Mine are quite humble and rustic compared to some I found, but I'm pleased with the results.

I stopped at a local thrift store and purchased a few sweaters that I thought would work nicely for the Christmas stockings. They came together quite quickly; the hardest part for me was drawing the template. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted the stockings to look like, but putting that vision onto paper...well, that was another story. Eventually I did come up with a suitable pattern, and I set to work sewing, using grosgrain ribbon for hangers.  Each stocking has it's own "personality", and it was fun matching up each one to its Little.  

I have lots of usable sweater scraps that I am going to put to good use in another quick and easy project, the last of my Christmas sewing.  I'm hoping to find some time in my studio today work on it.

Thanks for stopping by my corner.  I hope you all have a lovely day.

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