This year, me and Tom decided that we’d make each other a Christmas present with a budget of £10. I’ve been meaning to get around to making Christmas stockings, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity! I found a lovely template in issue 33 of Mollie Makes magazine – it is originally a template for a quilted stocking, but I wanted to make a felt one. I’ve seen lots of templates with funny shaped feet, so I was pleased to find it! I bought this lovely wool felt from Wool Felt Company (the shades are Christmas red and dark green) and I already had the other trimmings.

The first step is to pin and cut out the stocking pieces – I folded the felt in half and cut the two pieces together to make sure they are the same. I added 14cm length to the top of the template.

Then I measured the holly fabric by laying the felt over the top and cutting around it – I did this by eye but took measurements afterwards! You’ll need two 21.5 x 10.5cm pieces, pinned to the top with a small hem.

Next, I cut two pieces of gold ric rac and stitched them over the join between the fabric and felt. (If you’re wondering about when to stitch the rest of the fabric, don’t worry – that will be done shortly!) I also stitched a felt ‘T’ (for Tom) on the front piece of felt.

The next step was to machine stitch along the tops of the two stocking pieces. Then I cut a length of ribbon and put it between the two stocking pieces before pinning the whole thing together. The last step was to machine stitch around the sides of the stocking.

I’m so pleased with how it has turned out – hopefully Tom will love it too Merry Christmas!

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There are some lovely felt Christmas decorations in this month’s edition of Mollie Makes magazine, and I just had to have a go at making them! They have been designed by Samantha Stas, and she has decorated them in a fabulous retro style. Samantha stitches hers on a sewing machine but I decided to do mine by hand – mainly because my sewing machine was hidden away when we had the boiler fitted this week! I love hand sewing anyway, so you can choose what you prefer to do. I chose some red and green felt and some lovely ribbons and threads to make them:

I decided to use the templates (which you can download here) and then do my own thing with the design. On this green bauble I sewed some gold strands in star shapes and some red beads to decorate (probably not the technical names, but you’ll see what I mean in the photo!).

Next, I cut out some wadding to the size of the bauble shape and a length of ribbon to hang it up with. Pin the front and back bauble shapes and wadding together and stitch with a small running stitch.

The last thing to stitch to the bauble is the top felt topper pieces.

Ta-dah! There are so many different ways that you could embellish these decorations, and there are even lots of other shapes on the templates for you to try. Just remember that this project cannot be sold without permission, but they will make great gifts! I’ve made some other designs but can’t show you yet…you’ll have to wait until they have been given to my friends!

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