Christmas

First Closeup from Family Stockings 2008

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Closeup Hanging Tops 1

Here are a couple of the closeups I promised in my “Family Stockings 2008” post. These are my stocking and my mother’s. Mine was made out of scrap bag materials: the body from choir robe leftovers, the wacky print velveteen cuff from a 70’s decorator pillow cover, and the lining from a piece of “sheer” (ish) curtaining. I used a family brooch as the topper for my homemade tassel, made from a variety of textured yarns, and looped  a couple of single-crocheted “chains” of gold yarn from it to a pressed-copper button I shook out of the Random Button Box. Then I tasselated the gold yarn.

Mother’s was a little more interesting. I used an old silk jacquard evening suit jacket of my grandmother’s, which was, in the nature of the jacquard weave, a reverse of itself on each side. On the front, the roses are turquoise on gold, and on the back, the roses are gold on turquoise. So I made the cuff, heel and toe of one side, and the body of the stocking from the other side. I think it made a lovely, subtle difference.

I used the gold silk lining from the jacket for the lining of the stocking, and I had some gold colored ribbon that was a close match, which I used to make the hanger and roll the central ribbon roses of the large rosette, which I crested with gathered body-side fabric. The cuff was circled with self-ribbons of body-side fabric and lining fabric. The lining fabric has a small fringe made by pulling individual threads across the grain, better seen in this photo:

Mother's Top

I sewed the bottom of the ribbon/top of the fringe down with some glittery aqua embroidery thread to stop the raveling.

The blue tassel was made the same way, by unraveling and pulling all the gold threads from a piece of the jacquard fabric and rolling the top margin that was left. That created a perfectly color-matched (if somewhat delicate and flyaway) silk tassel. The gold tassel was made the regular way with gold thread tediously wrapped over a card. The top was decorated with “crystal” resin beads. The same gold thread was used in the decorative stitching over the ribbons on the cuff.

I would like to do another few stockings using this reversible jacquard technique (so subtle and beautiful!) and the self-fringing, too, although it’s wearying to do. So that’s not going to be something for the next couple months.

I’m going to post again soon on this year’s creative plans, and as you will see, it’s going to be a long list!

For Sale on Etsy: “Blue Splendor”

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Blue Splendor -12-1-1-2

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.

Blue Splendor -10-1

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.

Blue Splendor Close-Up

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.

Blue Splendor -16-1-1

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.

Blue Splendor -25-1-2

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).