Christmas Stocking Tutorial

Since I wrote on Friday about creating the in-the-hoop design for the Christmas Elf Stocking I have been embellishing and making more.  This post is about these stockings. 

I started out digitizing a basic stocking shape with the curly toe.  The top was left open.  I used a single stitch outline.  My plan was to hoop some tear away stabilizer in one of my largest hoops.  Then I would lay the fabric on top of the stabilizer, unhooped with the fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the first round of stitches outline the stocking.  The next thing that stitched would be whatever design that was going to be on the front of the stocking.  I chose a single color ornament design.  Then I would lay the next layer of fabric over the first layer, fold of the fabric across the top of the stocking, and let the outline stitch again.  Everything worked as planned.  I was able to pull the fabric away from the tear away stabilizer, trim the fabric around the stocking stitching and turn the stocking right side out.  It looked nice but was a bit small, and I noticed that I had not attached a loop for hanging the stocking.

Back to the drawing board.  I have a regular, red and white, fuzzy stocking that I bought as a standard for comparison purposes.  Through the next few tweaks with the digitizing program, I was able to enlarge the stocking to fit the hoop.  The hoop that I'm using is actual 16 1/2" x 11", but I cannot use all of that space because the corners are rounded.  The stocking ends up about 8" wide and 12" or 13" long because it's being made inside out.  Measuring the elf stocking against the standard stocking shows that the final is only slightly smaller than the standard.   The design was finalized and there were 3 stockings constructed during the tweaking phase. 

Since I had more of the golden colored fabric, I made two more stockings in the final design, one with candles and a poinsettia and one with candy canes.  They turned out very nice.  That is pretty much where I was when I last wrote.  I realized that I would need to figure out how to make a cuff and embellishments.

That is what I've been working on this weekend.  I had used all of the golden fabric but I did have scrap pieces remaining.  I thought if I could make a row of small, one inch, designs, on the folded golden fabric pieces, fold at the bottom, I could attach the row of designs to the top of the stocking.  It worked perfectly.  By placing the right side of the cuff to the wrong side of the stocking, I sewed around the top edge.  Then I placed the loop at the seam, loop side inside the stocking, and stitched loop and cuff straight up to finish off the cuff.  The cuff was then folded outside the stocking and it was done.  It looked very nice.  I have since thought that if I need to make the stocking longer, I could simply make the cuff longer and fold the cuff outside at a higher place.  I haven't tried that yet.





Once all of the cuffs were done, the stockings looked real cute but still needed something.  So, I got out my rhinestones and began applying them on the stockings.  They turned out adorable.  The only one that I didn't put rhinestones on was the candy cane stocking.  I would be concerned if a child swallowed a loose rhinestone.  I'm still thinking that there should be something on the toe of the stocking.  Maybe a little jingle bell, but I'm not sure at this point.









Today, I was looking around in my studio and found a piece of black satin fabric.  Since so many people around here love fleur de lis, I thought I would make a stocking in black satin with a gold fleur de lis.  I only had enough black satin for the outside of the stocking.  Instead of having a double layer of fabric with the fold at the top, I used a double layer of gold jersey with the fold at the top and then laid the black satin on top of the gold jersey and folding the top down a few inchs.  The outline and design were stitched and then a second layer of the black satin, folded at the top a few inches, with a double layer of gold jersey on top of that.  Then the design finished.  This worked out beautifully.  In fact, at this time I realized that using the double layer of jersey gave the stocking a bit of thickness that was lacking in the other stockings.  I used some of the scrap black satin fabric to make the cuff.  This cuff was made with a 2 inch fleur de lis design making the cuff larger.  Once all of the sewing was done, I filled in the fleur de lis outline with gold rhinestones.  The lining of gold jersey adds an pleasing touch. 



Tomorrow I have orders to fill.  This weekend was my time to play with the stocking design.  Hopefully, I'll be able to make more stockings before the Arts & Wine Festival in October.  Now that all of the designing and digitizing is done, these stockings are a lot of fun to make.



C'est tout, mes amis.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

It's Wednesday morning and already the week has been hopping (a little Easter pun).  Wow! As of this posting Cajun Stitchery has 225 fans on Facebook.  We need to get name recognition and it's looking good. 

The weather has been so beautiful that I can't seem to keep George indoors.  He has been working on the yard and in the garden.  I need to take pictures. 

One of the ladies who won our contest wanted a tablecloth to go with the napkins.  We ordered and received the tablecloth.  The napkins have been stitched out.  Oh, how lovely.  I'm bringing the tablecloth to her tonight and she will decide where she wants the designs on the tablecloth.  She wanted red napkins and tablecloth with a poinsettia and the name "Ballew".  On the tablecloth she wants the poinsettia on opposing corners and the name "Ballew" on opposing corners.  The only questions are: how big does she want the design and how far from the hem?  This will be a beautiful set when finished.

Sometime ago I ran across a place that sold "table in a bag" packages.  They included the tablecloth, over cloth, and chair covering.  That's a really cool idea but expensive.  We get our tablecloths from a factory in California and they seem to have nice napkins, tablecloths and all of the trimmings.  We can sell our own "table in a bag" package for around $100.00.  Embroidery would be an additional charge, of course.  The $100.00 is an approximation since table sizes and number of chairs and settings vary.  Our package would include the napkins, tablecloth, over cloth (in satin), and chair covering.  We can also offer table runners, chair sashes, and the over cloth in satin, organza or taffeta.  We can even get chargers.  I've always admired a pretty table.  Mine is usually covered in computers and notebooks.

Another contest winner debated on whether she wanted white napkins with a black "Z" or a pretty design that we put together with turtles and a "Z".  She finally saw the little turtle napkins that we did for another contestant and she ordered those.

The other contest winner had the red napkins with the conch shell and "Johnson" in script.  I believe those photos were posted earlier with the turtle napkins.

Last week we didn't have anyone enter the contest.  So far this week we have 3 entries.  Come on everyone, join in the fun.  There is no cost to you at all.  The winner gets a set of 4 napkins with napkin friendly embroidery of their choice.  All you have to do to enter is send me an email at peggyhenshall@yahoo.com and tell me a home remedy.  The home remedy could relate to health, housekeeping, gardening, whatever.  The winner will be announced on Friday.  This is our last contest for our anniversary month, so join in the fun.

We had a request for a slot machine design on a tote bag.  The customer found the design at Dakota Collectibles and we had the design in stock.  The problem was that the original design is about 2" square.  A design that small would hardly be noticable on a tote bag.  The rule is that you can usually take a large design and reduce the size, but the reverse is not true.  However, in this instance we increased the design to about 6" square and it looked fine.  Increasing the size of the design naturally increased the stitch count.  It went from about 11,000 stitches to 29,000 stitches.  Since embroidery is sold by the 1,000 stitches, this is an issue.  We then took the design back to the computer program and reduced the density a/k/a stitches.  The stitch count reduced to about 16,000.  Here are photographs of both.  Since this was a sample on density, the thin fabric used caused the registration (line and outlines) to be off considerably.  The registration will clean up when stitched on the proper fabric with the proper stabilizer and hooping.  That wasn't the issue at the moment.  Do you see the difference in the density?  The 29,000 stitch design has colors that appear more bold and bright and clearly delineated.  The 16,000 looks lighter.  It is a cute design.

Easter is coming up Sunday.  If you have any last minute baskets to get, please remember the environment and be eco-friendly.  Rather than plastic Easter grass, use shredded paper.  Avoid using plastic Easter baskets.  Be creative.  We still have some of the little garden totes, insulated lunch bags, and other totes that would make cute Easter baskets.  As corny as it sounds, George and I always color Easter eggs on the Saturday before Easter.  We love doing this and letting the child inside go wild:>)

C'est toute, mes amis.