Burlap Stocking How-To

 

I saw a picture on a blog a while back that showed burlap stockings and they were SO SO cute!! I've never bought our family "official" stockings because, let's be honest, they're usually pretty pricey if you want cute ones (unless you find ridiculous deals at Pottery Barn, like my mother in law did last year... I'm still so jealous!).

Anyway, burlap is awesomely cheap so I decided to make them myself... finally! I'm pretty excited about how they turned out, nothing fancy or frilly, just simple and cute...

Let me just apologize before hand about lack of how-to pictures, my camera (which is only a year old) broke over Thanksgiving- not that I was ever a professional photographer anyway, we all know that!

How-To

1. I used a decorative wall stocking that I have to make a pattern, but you can just draw one out. I did mine a little larger, so I just traced it about an inch bigger. I placed the stocking on wax paper, drew around it, and cut out.

2. Pin your wax paper stencil to your fabric and cut out...

(Don't mind the writing, I was just playing!)

3. If you want to add any pieces to the outside of the stocking (like I did on the toe and heel) do it now before you sew the front and back pieces together. I didn't use any pattern for this, just cut as I went. Remember it's burlap so it doesn't have to be perfect! Pin your heal/toe pieces to the stocking front and sew.

4. Sew the front and back pieces of your stocking together.

*Don't turn the stocking inside-out yet.

5. For the top of the stocking fold your burlap piece in half.  Iron it to make it easier. When you buy burlap it comes folded in half, so I used as much as I had of that. (I haven't gotten much sleep lately so as of right now I can't think of how to say that better! Ha, sorry!)

6. Cut your top piece to fit your stocking. (Use your measuring tape to see how long you need it.) Mine ended up being about 7" wide x20" long.

7.  Fold the piece in half and sew on the very edge (about 1/4").

Your piece should look like this:

8. Place the sleeve inside your stocking - Like this picture, except put the piece inside the stocking - and sew on the top edge only.

9. Turn your right side out.

10. Sew on something to be able to hang your stockings by. I used this rope/hemp looking stuff from Hobby Lobby...

Sew it in the, let me think how to put this... Upper corner of the left side on the inside of the stocking. Wow that makes no sense, but I think you know what I'm talking about, yes? :) It's a little bit tricky, but I thought this was easier to do it this way then having to add it before the top of the stocking. You just have to maneuver your stocking around your sewing machine.

11. Add decorative pieces. I wanted the boys stockings to be simple and I couldn't find any buttons I liked so I went with these...

Yes, bottle caps :). You can use real caps, but they actually sell these at Hobby Lobby in the scrapbooking section.

For the ladies stockings I went with a prettier look. I followed a SUPER cute idea HERE  from Under the Table and Dreaming to make the flower thingys for mine and Taya's stockings...

I attached the flower thingy's (just get used to me saying "thingy's because it's going to happen a lot!) by gluing a piece of cardboard to the bottom of the foam, then I hot glued them onto the burlap. The cardboard was just to protect the foam so it wouldn't melt at all. Then I added some doily's for extra pizazz... do people still use that word? Make sure you put something in between where you're hot-gluing so you don't accidentally glue your stocking together.

12. Add your letters. I used my Cricut machine to cut the stencils, then taped them together and taped her name to the burlap. The tape is nice just in case you get any paint around the edges! Wait until it dries a little to peel off the stencil, but don't wait too long or the paper will stick and might rip up some of your paint. You can also just buy stencils if you want!

13. Pin your name to the stocking and sew around it. Again, it's a little difficult to maneuver your stocking around the machine, but I waited until the end to do this because I wanted to be able to see the exact placement.

Done!

Here's some close ups:

 

And on our fireplace...

Hope you like them!

Christmas Stockings!!!

I know, I'm a little over excited about them! Unfortunately I've been extremely busy lately and have no time to post the how-to, but here's a few pictures just because I can't stand it any longer :) ...

Ma & Pops...

The kiddos...

I love how vintagey they ended up looking!
(Vintagey- it's a word.)

 **Sorry about the pictures, my camera has been having issues and is now offically broken :(

Love Love Love Burlap

Have I mentioned I love burlap? :) Have you ever worked with it? Ok, it's not my favorite to sew with, but man is it cheap! And so so cute!

I've been meaning to make some pillows for my never-ending-bedroom-makeover and finally got around to it the other day. A few months ago I made a bed skirt out of some fabric I found that had every color I wanted in my room. My dressers are a light light green:

so that's always been a bit hard to match things too. Note to self: always choose fabrics before paints!!

...Anyway, I used burlap and a little bit of the fabric from my bed skirt that I had left over. I had this random idea to make it look like a present so here's what I ended up with...

How to:

1. Cut fabric to fit pillow (my pillow was 18in x 18in so I cut my burlap 19in x 19 in). Remember your seams will take up about 1" if you do 1/2" seam on each side.

*I wanted this pillow to be super quick and easy to make so instead of using a zipper I just cut the fabric for the back of the pillow in 2 pieces and overlapped them so you could still be able to remove the cover to wash. Does that make sense? So for the back piece I cut one piece 10in and another piece 14in (leaving 6 inches to overlap).

2. On your back piece fold over the edges about 1/2in and sew. You can iron it to make it easier and more even to sew, but I just did mine super fast and didn't worry about it...

 This is what the two back pieces end up looking like...

 3. Sew the two back pieces together, just where they overlap about 1" long and 1/4" seam - basically just to keep them in place. You don't have to do this, but I thought it was easier.

4. Pin the back and front of your case together...

 5. Sew around the edges, 1/2" seam.

6. My mom taught me a cool trick- which, if you do a lot of sewing I'm sure you already know- when you're done sewing cut all the corners off to give you a cleaner corner once you turn your pillow right side out.

 7. Turn your pillow right side out and iron if necessary.

 8. Place your pillow inside the case

9. Grab your twine and wrap your present pillow :) . This is what I used, I bought it at Hobby Lobby, but you can get it anywhere... 

(I used the bottom one because it was thicker)

10. I tied a good knot, cut the strings and then added my circle flower thingy on top, but you can decorate it however you want...

 *For the top piece: 

1. All I did was take the fabric I used for my bed skirt and cut circles (not perfect), and then took my burlap and cut other circles to go in between them. Layer the circles and sew the center by bunching it with your fingers a little. You can do this by hand, or what I did was fold my layers of circles in half and run it through my machine a few stitches (since I was too lazy to do it by hand!).

 2. Attach your circle layer thingy decorative piece to your twine by needle and thread

3. Attach a button, or I knotted my twine twice and hot glued it to the circles.

Done! ...

This pillow turned out to be sooo fast and easy!

 My bed is still in need of a few more pillows, but those might have to wait for a bit- I've got Christmas things to worry about! :) ... Including burlap stockings I'm working on! I'm so excited about them! I'll post as soon as they're done!