Hanging Up The Stocking

Hello peeps, Darcy here again with another festive project. This is quite possibly the most important project, one you really cannot do without. A Christmas stocking! of course it depends on what you are expecting to find inside, if you have been naughty it will be coal. 

I started by cutting out 2 large sock shapes from heavy white cotton fabric. I started with the back of the stocking, and marked the whole piece into diamonds. This was quick and easy, I just used the width of my ruler, draw a line, move along and repeat. 

Next I chose my colours, 2 reds and 2 greens. London Bus. Claret. Limelight. Hey Pesto I painted each diamond.  ( All paint in this project was mixed with fabric medium) Then I cut out a diamond shape to use as a mask, and then stamped I and D mini 39  into just some of the diamond shapes. 

I then tidied up the edges using a black Dylon fabric marker. 

Next I used a textured brayer to first add Snowflake and then Old Gold. 

Once this was dry I layered the fabric with some polyester wadding and a backing piece and using my machine I stitched all the diamonds with gold thread. 

These 2 pieces of fabric were coloured in exactly the same way, however I made the diamonds only half the size. The diamonds were stitched again with metallic thread. These two pieces will form the folded over cuff, therefore I did not use wadding behind them as that would have made them too thick. Once the diamonds were stitched I then joined the 2 pieces at one of the short ends. 

Now for the front piece. I marked off the toe and heel sections, then using the same paints as before I coloured the whole piece. To avoid it looking flat and boring, make sure to use the darker colours to add shading. Note the green area looks patchy, I did this by adding a little gesso in between layers. This gives it a more worn appearance.

I then started to stamp in the red areas. For the toe I chose to carry on using the xmas mini. I used Red Geranium archival ink and repeated the stamp over the whole area. 

For the heel area I used all the text from HPXM03

I used the same red ink, and small pieces of scrap paper to mask off the edges of the area. I then took the small tree from Ink and the Dog: Noel 4 (N4) and stamped it around the edge of the heel. 

Next I tidied the edge with the black fabric marker, then added a little Old gold Fresco paint. 

I  used a stencil to add random diamonds all over the front, in both red and green. These were  distressed a little by adding Snowflake with a brayer. This keeps continuity with the back piece and the cuff pieces. 

To finish the front I added wadding and a backing piece and then stitched around some of the diamonds and also around the blobs of gold paint. 

This is how the front piece looks now. 

Now to make some accent pieces. I painted 3 areas of fabric. One with Claret and Old gold, Another with Hyde park and Old Gold, and the third piece with Honeydew and metallic glaze. 

Onto these pieces I stamped some baubles, 2 from HPXM02 

and then the large bauble set from EDY03

The smaller baubles do not need painting, as they are stamped onto a painted background, but the larger ones were filled in with the same reds and greens that are used on the stocking. 

I ironed some fabric interfacing to the back of the baubles and then cut them out, doing this means the edges won't fray so much .

I arranged the baubles onto the front of the stocking and marked in pencil where the hanging strings would go. Then I twisted some yarns together and zig zag stitched them onto the stocking. 

I then stitched the baubles onto the ends of the machined cords. 

I felt the cuff pieces were a little boring, so I created a sentiment for the front. I painted a piece of fabric using all of the greens, keeping the blending rough. I then stamped the xmas mini all over using Fern Green Archival ink, and then the large text from HPXM02 Once the edges were 'fringed' it was ready to stitch to the front cuff piece. 

 I then turned under the edge of the cuff and added some lace. 

Now I just needed to stitch it all together. First I stitched the back and front pieces, very simply just a straight stitched around the edge and turn it the right way out. I finally stitched the cuff to the top of the stocking. 

Here is the finished back, you can see how the large diamond and small compliment each other without being identical. 

At the last minute I decided to put a red lining inside my stocking, but you don't really need to. Here is the finished front, I am so pleased with it. The padded quilting makes it feel very luxurious. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing this process, I know starting a large fabric project like this can be daunting but remember all these individual stages could be done on a much smaller scale, perhaps on scraps of fabric that could then be attached to the front of a card or tag, or even a canvas. 

Darcy x