christmas stockings

Nothing says Christmas to me like stockings. Somehow this icon represents all the little pleasures of the season: decorating, gift-giving, yearly traditions, sweet treats and surprises. No mantel is complete in the month of December without at least a few stockings hung up there.

Stockings are a great blank slate to get creative with. You really can do anything with the design, mixing up size & scale, fabric & color. Even the shape is up for interpretation! Yet still, everyone can immediately identify it as a stocking. I think that this is why I really enjoy making these. They are a quick and easy project that you can really have fun with.

These are small stockings I made to hold gift cards. Believe it or not, these are made out of vintage vinyl wallpaper samples. I sewed them on the machine like they were fabric.

Several years ago I participated in an ornament swap. I made these miniature felt stockings as ornaments. Can you tell yet that I like my stocking to have a heel?

Above are some images of Rock Scissor Paper designs we created (past & present) that feature stocking imagery.

From top to bottom: Laurel Canyon holiday card from 2002, Stocking Pattern holiday card, Peace, Love & Understanding mini card, and Holiday Boot gift tags from 2007. And last but not least, one of my all time favorites, Crafty Stocking.

A true “stocking story”: Many years ago, Heidi & I were preparing for a in-person shopping event during the holidays. I came in that morning to the studio with a small felt stocking that I had made the night before as a sample. Our plan was to pack up the van and then I would spend a couple of hours making some of these cute little stockings to have for the sale. All day, we were busy packing products and loading up my van with display props & fixtures and I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough time to get to work on the stockings.  I went out to put one more thing in the van and realized very quickly that it had just been stolen, even though it was sitting 2 feet from our open warehouse door! Needless to say we were very upset and even more so because that was the 4th time that particular van had been stolen (but we always got it back).

After filing the police report and trying to describe for the officers that “Yes, really, there was a 6 ft stainless steel Christmas tree in the back of the van.” I sat down in our studio and consoled myself by making something like 30 stockings! The next day at the sale, the stockings were a big hit, and we got a chuckle that each one was probably soaked with my tears during their construction!

-Susie