Emma’s Christmas Stocking

It is done! Emma’s stocking is really, truly done — and hanging by the fireplace for all to admire. This project has given me a whole new understanding of the phrase “labor of love,” and I am so proud of the end result. I hope Emma will like it for years to come.

Finishing didn’t take too long once I finally got over my fear of somehow messing up the cross stitch during the finishing process. The first step was giving the whole thing a bath — after 14 months of handling, I wanted to get some of the oil and dirt it surely accumulated out.

From there, it was off to the sewing machine. I decided to first attach the cross stitched portion to a piece of very lightweight fusible interfacing. This gave the edges a nice smooth look and also let me fuse the whole thing to the front for added security and stability.

If you look very closely, you can see some white stitches along the tree border — those are the basting stitches I used to secure the interfacing.

Once the cross stitch was fused onto the stocking front piece, I went around the entire border with a hand-sewn slip stitch just to make sure everything was secured. I hope this stocking will be in use for years to come, so I figured it was a good idea to secure things as well as I could!

From there, it was pretty simple to finish off the stocking. I used my experience of making lined bags in the past to make a lined stocking. The outside is on the left, right sides out. The lining is on the right, right sides in — with a gap in the stitching along one side to let me turn everything later. I inserted the outer into the lining, sewed around the top opening (adding a strip of fabric for the hanger), and then used that hole in the lining to turn the stocking right side out. I hand stitched the hole in the lining closed…and voila!

14 months of work and 1 Christmas stocking. I love it.

(Previous stocking progress reports: 1, 2, and 3.)