Beyond The Picket Fence: 12 Days of Christmas, Day 10, Stockings

Monday, December 8, 2014

12 Days of Christmas, Day 10, Stockings

On the tenth day of Christmas

Beyond The Picket Fence gave to me,

Colorful, patchwork stockings.

As I have mentioned, I am doing a new color scheme for Christmas this year, which means my all white stockings I have used the past few years weren't going to make the cut this year. (See more of my all white decor HERE)

I started looking at the thrift stores for plaid shirts and sweaters in my new color scheme. I also used a few pairs of my daughter's old plaid pajamas she has outgrown. I ironed a heavy fusible interfacing on the back of pieces of my upcycled fabric.

I then sketched out a stocking on butcher paper.

I made a second one. I cut one pattern into 3 pieces and one into 4 pieces.

I used the pieces to cut out the fabric, pinning the stocking parts together as I made each one so I wouldn't get confused. I sewed the fronts together, cut out backs from white felt, and sewed them together.

I added ribbon loops to hang the stockings. I cute wood slices from some lovely hickory branches I have. Goodness, it takes the saw some work to get through the hickory. I painted names on them and tied them on with baker's twine and jute.

The most exciting part is I now have a mantel to hang them on. When we moved into our home 11 years ago, we didn't know what we wanted for a mantel and so we went without. Well, one year turned into 11, but as I initially hung the new stockings into the drywall this year, I asked hubby if we could please figure out a mantel over the weekend.

We hunted around in my wood piles and found this lovely hunk of a barn wood beam--hubba, hubba! It was the exact perfect length. It had angled ends, which at first I wasn't sure I wanted, but I love them.