Christmas Stockings Four Years in the Making!

This project started about 4 years ago as I was perusing some beautiful charm packs at a quaint little shop at the Minnesota State Fair.  I wasn't exactly sure what I planned to do with them at the time but had to have them.  It was the Aspen frost line by Moda.

Fast forward 4 years and I had the brilliant idea of making stockings for the family.  After pinning a bunch of patterns I finally settled on a Craftsy Stocking Pattern found here.  I used the tutorial from Sewlikemymom to actually put the stockings together.  This required slight modifications on the cuff but was easy to figure out.



I pulled out my charm packs and decided it would be a a great idea to sew half square triangles.  I divided the pack into patterned pieces and plain pieces.  I used the June Tailor half square triangle to mark, cut and trim the squares.

Once all the squares were created I then set out to find all the possible ways to combine half square triangles into creative patterns.  I used some of the ideas for half-square triangle layouts from Making More with Less  Each of the stockings has a different pattern but still fit together.

Then the unfortunate realization came that in my effort to use something in my stash I definitely didn't fully plan out how much fabric I would need to make 7 stockings.  I should have known this would happen but of course somewhere between starting and getting to the midpoint I thought the charm pack would magically reproduce.  It did not.  So I set out to the Internet to see if I could scrounge up enough fabric from a line that came out years ago.

Low and behold I stumbled upon someone who had 4 charm packs of this line.  I promptly ordered two and waited in utter excitement for the rest of my fabric to arrive.   And then it arrives.  And I realize I have ordered mini charm packs instead of charm packs.

Off to find more fabric.  This repeats 2 more times.  Seriously not sure why I thought it would be enough to get this project done.

Now all the fabric is here to finish piecing the fronts.  I get it finished and realize that I have not enough fabric for the back.  Off to the Internet to find more fabric.  I was becoming really amazed at how these fabric lines hang on and somehow I was able to get enough fabric.

At this point I set out to get the names set for embroidery.  I used the Singer Futura Software with Hyperfont.  I used Birds of Paradise for the font.  One of these days I will figure out how to get the alignment right on embroidery.  They aren't horrible but could have been better centered.

Now all that is left is cutting and piecing the lining pieces and assembly.    I used the pinking blade for my Olfa cutter to trim up the seams.  Once assembly was finished I hung them by the chimney with care to wait 11 months for Christmas to be here.