"...and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...."

Welllll, we have a chimney... that is attached to our wood-burning fireplace..... that we use a LOT.....  so these stockings are hung by the china cabinet near the Christmas tree so our house might not burn down.  :)

Our family has never been stocking stuffers at Christmas..... until this year.  As my husband and I were out completing our Christmas shopping a few weeks ago, he was adding this little thing and that little thing to the cart.  Let me pause here to explain.... my husband is a 'gift-giver'.  He loves to give gifts.  It's such fun to see HIS face and HIS excitement when someone is opening a gift he's given.  Many times he's been so excited over a gift, that he's just gone ahead and given it because HE can't wait for the appointed special day to arrive!  So back to the little things going into the cart...... turns out he was planning for them to go into Christmas stockings.... Christmas stockings we do not have.  Melissa had one left over from one of my crafty days when she was little when I painted her name on a quickly purchased red felt stocking with metallic Tulip fabric paint, and that was pretty much it.  So, if we're getting stocking stuffers for Melissa and Tom's mom (aka Granny - she'll be spending Christmas with us), then not only do both of them need adequate stockings, but Tom and I do too.

Thinking this would an oh-so-quick and speedy project, I checked my pinterest board and saw a link I'd pinned showing a stocking laid out for stitching, put the image in my head, traced the stocking I had on hand for my pattern, adding enough for a 'cuff' and went to town making a muslin to check the construction.  Muslin turned out oh-so-cute (photo above) so now I needed to chose the 'real' fabric(s).  Over the years I've been moving our home decor into the more 'natural' fibers and wanted to continue that in our Christmas decorating.  Our tree this year is simple with white twinkly lights, little white silk poinsettia flowers poked in here and there, along with Melissa's beaded candy canes she's made through the years. Those simple candy canes hold so many special memories it just would not be right to not see those on our Christmas tree!

Knowing I had plenty of burlap in the stash, I thought that would suit.  Simple, Organic, Natural.  That's what I wanted.  For the cuff/lining went with a piece of creamy stretch velour, also from the stash.  Thought the texture of the velour would be striking against the burlap.

With this pattern, it is a truly lined stocking whose top is simply turned down for the 'cuff'.  But what I did not realize until EVERYTHING was cut out and ready to be stitched.... is there's no place to sew in a hanging loop.  My little oh-so-quick-n-easy project screeched to a halt at this point as I pondered the loop problem.  Pinned a few other Christmas stocking tutorials after finding out that I could've cut the cuff separately and when stitching it to the top in the last step of construction, you can sew in a loop then.  Well, well, well.  Seeing as it's now a mere 8 days away from Christmas Eve and my little stocking holders have been sitting empty waiting to hold their appointed stockings, I just moved forward sewing the stockings together as I'd originally planned and figured I'd worry about the loop later.

Wanting the stockings to have a 'natural', 'organic' feel, none of my trims and ribbons felt right.  Thinking of some jute twine I had on hand... played with that for a few minutes and came up with my own 'twisted' loop.  I'd taken a fiber arts class a few years ago where we took strands of fiber and twisted them together to make a strand of yarn, and that's what I did with 2-21.5" of jute twine. After letting it back-twist to create the strand, fooled around with a knot under a loop and hand-stitched it to the outside back of each stocking with a double strand of Button Craft Thread.  Love that stuff.  It is so strong.

And now it's beginning to feel a lot more like Christmas around here!

Hoping you and your family are enjoying this Christmas season!