How to make your own Christmas Stocking this Year

Deck the halls, heat up the mulled wine, pick out your tree and snuggle up into your Christmas jumper… December is here! 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and what better way to celebrate the festive period than by adorning your home and the homes of those you love with homemade Christmas decorations and festivities. 

This year, we as a nation are being encouraged to move away from what has sadly become the norm for present consumption at Christmas - buying gifts just for the sake of buying gifts. We seem to spend an unprecedented amount of money on gifts for those we love, whether we think they need it/will love it or not. The expectation to share expensive gifts from huge corporations has become standarda nd here at Hot Pink, we don’t think that should be the case! We believe Christmas presents should be highly thoughtful and personalised which is why our blogs for December are going to be around how to make your own Christmas goodies.

Without further ado, here is our guide on how to make your own Christmas stocking. Whether you’re looking to make Christmas stocking for yourself to collect all of Father Christmas’ generous donations, for one your kids or for a friend, we can tell you how to make a Christmas stocking that is durable, practical and beautiful!

First thing’s first
To make your Christmas stocking you will need:

• A stocking pattern
• Fabric scissors 
• Sewing machine (you can hand sew but it will be tricky!)
• Chalk to mark
• Pins to hold
• Some sort of sticky tape
• 10cm ribbon 
• A3 fabric for the cuff
• A2 fabric for the sock 

Picking your fabric
One of the big benefits of making your own Christmas stocking is that you get to decide exactly how it looks (ability permitting!). One thing that you can guarantee will be as you like it, is your fabric choice. Some Christmassy fabrics we recommend using are:

• Plump Christmas Puddings print
• Christmas Puddings, Gingerbread Men and Candy Sticks print
• Christmas Snowmen on Blue print 
• Christmas Snow Red print
• Christmas Stars Green print
• Christmas Stars Red print
• Christmas Trees with Decoration print
• Christmas Trees with Snowflakes print
• Christmas Holly White print
• Nordic Reindeers print

Choose your stocking pattern
It’s important to find a pattern which fits the specifications you want. To find one, you can either source one online to print, buy one or create your own if you’re comfortable enough. The easy thing about stockings is that the shape isn’t too complex so there isn’t a huge amount of room for error!

Cutting your fabric
Put your stocking pattern on top of your fabric and lightly pin them in place before cutting around the outside edge of the pattern. If you’re not confident that you will cut around the pattern exactly, you can draw around the outside of the pattern with chalk instead so that you then just have to cut around the marks. Once this is done, turn your pattern over and repeat on the other side of the stocking

Getting the fabric together
When your two stocking shaped fabric pieces are completely cut out, pin them together with the design side facing in (so that it looks inside out). Now it’s time for your sewing machine to shine! Stick your stocking together whilst it’s pinned by the heel, the toe and sides of the stocking and leave a 1cm seam allowance - hopefully this should go without saying but please remember to leave the top of the sock open! 

Time to cuff up!
Lay the two panels of fabric together with the design sides facing in before then sandwiching a loop of your chosen ribbon between the 2 cuff panels outlined in your pattern. Ensure the ends of the ribbon are sticking through one of the intended side seams and be sure to place the ribbon as close to the middle of the seam as possible so that it ends up at the top of the completed stocking when flipped through. Once this has been done, you can then sew down the left and right edges of the cuff panels and leave the top and bottom open. 

Now it’s time to make it look pretty! Fold the bottom edge up so that it meets the top edge with the wrong sides facing it. This should make the ribbon loop come to the outside so it can be seen.

Bringing it together
Your Christmas stocking is now ready to come together! Place the cuff inside the sock panels ensuring that all the raw edges of the cuff and sock are aligned at the top. Then, make sure the side of the cuff which has the ribbon is on the same side as the heel. Once this is done, you can then sew the raw edges together in a circle which means you can still access the inside of the stocking (or so that Father Christmas can still access it..!).

The final product!
You’re so close! Turn the stocking inside out so that the correct side with all the designs is now facing out. Press the seams completely flat and then… Ta da! One exceptional homemade Christmas stocking. You can of course at this point add on some more customisable assets such as cutting out Christmassy shapes from our glitter felt and adding it to the design or attaching some buttons along the lining to make it truly one of a kind.

We do hope you have found this Christmas stocking guide useful. Christmas stockings are simple and pretty time efficient to make as well as highly rewarding! They make a fantastic little gift or are great to use as your own Christmas stocking for this year and hopefully many more to come!