For Sale on Etsy: “Blue Splendor”

A hand-beaded, hand-embroidered and home-quilted holiday heirloom made from glittered organza ribbons, sparkling holograph edging and glowy white satin.

The blue-green needle-woven part of the design was inspired by one of my husband’s photographs of a half-fallen tree in a local lowcountry marsh, where he also took photos of coiled new ferns getting ready to open, which inspired the long-legged spirals.

To make this stocking, I cut away the wide organza ribbon’s holographic edges, and sewed the remaining ribbon strips together to create a large-enough square of “fabric” to cover the body pieces of satin. I applied the remaining holographic edging over the seams in the pieced fabric.

Once I had the two full stocking shapes assembled, I applied batting and quilted the toe, heel and cuff pieces with silver metallic thread. I sewed through the designs I had drawn on paper to provide thread guidelines on the front surfaces of the two stocking bodies (front and back). The spirals were beaded first, then I filled in between the lines of the tree shape with a needle-weaving technique called faggoting, using the blue-green metallic thread.

I applied the cuff last, along with the white satin lining and the silver hanger string. Once again I used the glittered ribbon and its holographic edging to make a compound decorative band, along with additional satin. The cuff decoration includes several different decorative stitches including curls, spirals, chevrons and tiny stars. An open decorative stitch provides support for a fill of more needleweaving with the metallic blue-green thread. Finally, I added a doubled and interwoven swag of beads.

The embroidery and beading designs are completely mirrored on both sides in order to make it possible to hang the stocking either to the left or to the right.

On the flat, not including the hanger, the stocking measures about 13 inches (33 cm) by 9 inches (23 cm) from the top of the cuff to the bottom of the toe. Straight across the center of the body, the stocking is 5.5 inches (14 cm). When hung as shown, it drops an additional 2 inches (5 cm) for a total hanging length of approximately 15 inches (38 cm).

First Fat Quarter Stocking

Gold and Wine

Gold and Wine

This is the first Christmas Stocking I made from two “Fat Quarters.” Because it was among my early efforts to create the perfect shape, it is smaller than my usual stockings today, at about 85% the size of my current pattern. It is heavily beaded, but because of the colors I used for the beading, it doesn’t show up very well in photos.

Family Stockings 2008

This is a photo of our family Christmas stocking collection as it looked a few years ago. My husband’s stocking (far left) was not yet completed that Christmas, and the pet stocking at the far right was later replaced with a better one.

I know many people prefer a more sophisticated, coordinated look for their mantel decorations, but this mish-mash of colors and styles has become our tradition.

I made all of them myself, of course, and learned a lot in the process. It all started because I had seen so many awkward, haphazard, ill-proportioned shapes in the stores and online (see also: the above-referenced pet stocking, one of my earliest efforts) that I decided that I simply had to make my own pattern, and I set out to create the “Perfect” Christmas stocking.

But that was a lot trickier than you might think. It’s easy enough to eventually come up with a good overall shape, although that in itself required a lot of trial and error, but to then separate that basic shape into heel and toe and body sections added a whole new dimension of challenge. It wasn’t just a matter of drawing some nice-looking pieces and adding seam allowances to them. I discovered that some of those beautifully curvy heel seams –they looked so nice on paper– were a nightmare to sew!

I’ll be showing some closeup shots of most of these stockings and discussing their details as I go along.