By Show Me Step by StepPublished
Based on a video by Debbie Shore.
A fully lined Christmas stocking with a contrast cuff and a ribbon loop, made from a pattern you draw yourself in about five minutes. No pattern to buy and no printing.
This follows Debbie Shore's method. The part worth paying attention to is the ankle: you cut into the pattern and tape a strip in to widen it. Skip that and you get a stocking shape that looks right and will not take anything bigger than an orange.
The whole thing is straight seams and one curve. If you have sewn a cushion cover you can sew this.
Half a yard of the outer fabric and half a yard of lining makes one stocking about 18 inches tall, with enough left over for the cuff. Cotton quilting fabric is the easiest to sew and comes in every Christmas print going. Velvet, faux fur and felt look richer but slip and shed, so pin more often and sew them slower.
A light fusible interfacing on the outer pieces turns a floppy stocking into one that holds its shape on the mantel. It is optional, but it is the difference between a stocking that stands up and one that folds over at the ankle.
A lined stocking has no raw seams inside to snag small presents, it hangs straighter, and it survives being stuffed and emptied for twenty years. The lining is sewn as a second stocking and dropped inside the first, right sides together at the top, then the whole thing is turned through the gap you leave in the lining seam. That gap is the one step people skip, and without it there is no way to turn the stocking right side out.
Cut the cuff as a rectangle as wide as the top of the stocking plus half an inch, sew it into a tube, and fold it in half so both raw edges line up with the stocking top. Tuck the hanging loop - about 6 inches of ribbon folded in half - between the cuff and the stocking at the heel-side seam before you sew round the top. It then sits inside the seam and cannot pull out.
To personalise it, add the name to the cuff before the cuff is sewn into a tube. Iron-on felt letters or a line of hand embroidery both work far better on a flat piece of fabric than on a finished stocking.
Trace your finished pattern onto card and keep it. Cut every outer piece in one session, every lining in another, then sew the set production-line style: all the cuffs, then all the outer stockings, then all the linings. Five stockings sewn this way take about the time three take one at a time, and they come out matching.
The foot is the only curve on the stocking, and it is where most homemade ones look homemade. Sew it slowly with a shorter stitch length, around 2mm, and stop with the needle down every inch or so to pivot the fabric a little. Then clip small notches into the seam allowance round the curve, close to the stitching but not through it. Without the notches the fabric bunches when you turn it and the toe comes out lumpy.
Press every seam before you turn the stocking through, and again after. A hot iron does more for the finished look than any amount of careful sewing, and on a lined stocking it is what stops the lining peeking over the top of the cuff.
10 steps · about 19 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
On a sheet of paper, measure 7 inches across the top and draw a long rectangle down from it, about 16 inches deep.
The measurements are not sacred - it is a stocking, not a dress. What does matter is that the top two corners are true right angles, because that edge is what the cuff has to sit flat against later.
Tip
Copy paper taped together works fine. There is no need for proper pattern paper for a shape this simple.
Draw a curve across the bottom to make the foot, then cut the whole shape out.
If you want the curve even, draw around a 7 inch plate. Freehand is genuinely fine though - nobody hangs a stocking and inspects the radius of the toe.
Tip
Cut just outside your pencil line. It is far easier to shave a pattern down than to tape a slice back on.
Measure 6 inches up from the end of the curve and mark a line straight across. Cut up to that line but not all the way through, so the pattern still holds together.
Open the cut out, tape a spare strip of paper into the gap, and blend the new edge back into the curve. That widening is what turns a narrow tube into something you can actually get a present into.
Tip
It does not matter that there is now a hole in the middle of the pattern. You are only drawing round the outside of it.
Cut two pieces from your outer Christmas fabric and two from the lining.
Fold the fabric double and cut both layers at once so the pair come out identical and mirrored. Plain cotton is the sensible choice for the lining - there is no reason to spend good Christmas print on the inside of a stocking.
Tip
Right sides together or wrong sides together makes no difference at this stage. You just need two of each and they need to match.
Cut two cuff pieces from a contrast fabric, 7 inches across to match the stocking top and 9 inches deep.
The cuff gets folded in half, so the depth you cut is roughly double what will show. Cutting it deep is what gives you a proper turned-over cuff rather than a thin band.
Tip
Watch the direction of a patterned fabric here. The raw edge ends up at the top of the stocking, so the print needs to be upside down relative to how you are looking at it.
Place the two cuff pieces right sides together with the print running the same direction, and sew down both short ends to make a tube. A quarter inch seam allowance is plenty.
Whichever allowance you choose, use the same one for every seam in the project. Consistency matters more than the number.
Tip
Turn the finished tube right side out and set it aside. It does not get attached until step 9.
Put the two outer pieces right sides together and sew around the edge, leaving the top open.
Then snip into the concave curve at the ankle - up to the stitching but not through it - and trim some of the seam allowance away around the toe. Both let the fabric spread instead of bunching, so the seam sits flat once it is turned.
Tip
If you are adding applique or a name, do it before this seam goes in, while the fabric is still a flat single layer.
Sew the lining pieces the same way, but leave a gap of a few inches in the long back seam near the heel. That gap is how the whole stocking gets turned right side out at the end.
Make the lining seam allowance a fraction wider than the one you used on the outer. The lining ends up very slightly smaller, which is what makes it sit neatly inside instead of bagging.
Tip
Put the gap low on the back seam. Nobody sees the inside of a stocking, but if you are going to close it by hand you may as well hide it.
Turn the outer stocking right side out and slide the cuff tube down over the top, matching the side seams and lining up the raw top edges.
Fold a length of ribbon into a loop and pin it to the back, directly over the seam, with the loop pointing down into the stocking. Tack across the top to hold everything before the lining goes on.
Tip
Squash the seam allowances open where the layers stack up. Less bulk under the needle makes the final seam far easier to sew.
Push the whole stocking down inside the lining so all three layers meet at the top, then sew right around that edge with a half inch seam allowance.
Pull everything out through the gap you left in the lining, turn it all right side out, then stitch the gap closed. Push the lining down inside the stocking, fold the cuff over, and it is done.
Tip
When you pull through the gap, the seam allowances fold themselves inward. Press them flat with your fingers before you sew across and the closure will be almost invisible.
Keep going
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How to Make a Christmas Stocking
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Question 1 of 5
Which part of the pattern actually has to be accurate?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.Which part of the pattern actually has to be accurate?
Answer: The top two corners must be right angles
That top edge is what the cuff has to sit against, so it has to be square.
2.Why cut the fabric folded double?
Answer: The pair come out identical and mirrored
Cutting both layers at once is how you get a matched left and right.
3.Why is the cuff cut 9 inches deep for a 7 inch top?
Answer: It gets folded, so depth roughly doubles
Cut it shallow and you get a thin band instead of a proper turned cuff.
4.Why snip into the concave curve at the ankle?
Answer: It lets the fabric spread, not bunch
Clipping a concave curve is what lets it open out instead of puckering.
5.What is the gap left in the lining seam for?
Answer: Turning the whole stocking right out
Everything gets pulled through that gap, then it is stitched closed.
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