Stockings!

The other day at the store my husband saw a 49ers stocking and he was going to BUY it! I was appalled because the stockings in my family were always homemade by my mom. She made them when we were babies and they were always our stockings. I couldn't let my husband BUY one! So to get him not to buy that one, I had to promise I would make him a 49ers stocking.

So I bought this fabric and then I was in a pickle. How do you make this fabric Christmas-y?

The answer to that question is to spend hours at Joann's scouring their fabric until you find the right one, a task I did not mind at all ;)

And I also found the perfect, adorable fabric to make my own stocking with too. I bought 1/2 a yard of each fabric, just in case I messed up.

Many, many moons ago (3 years to be exact because the Christmas after I got married I wanted to make stockings... I'm a bit of a procrastinator) my mother gave me her stocking pattern. I believe she made this pattern herself:

I did not use the heel or toe cuts. She makes these stockings out of felt and I was using fabric and doing the heel and toe felt like too much work.

I folded my fabric in half, wrong side up, so that when I cut out the pattern I could simply pin and sew. I laid the pattern out on my fabric and traced it in black colored pencil:

I forgot to take pictures of the next step but it is super simple. Cut out the stocking, sew the wrong sides together, leaving the top open, and then flip the stocking inside out.

Then for the top seam I simply folded the top over about 1/2 an inch and sewed along the edge:

For the top of the stocking, I used the Christmas-y fabric and cut this out: (again I folded the fabric in half, wrong side up)

Again, I forgot pictures but sew the wrong sides together and flip inside out again.

Then sew that to the top and side of the stocking: 

For the loop, I used the cut from the pattern but you can simply cut out a straight piece of fabric:

 

Then fold it over and sew it to the inside of the stocking:

 

(For some reason I am absurdly proud of this picture and how the background is blurry and I have no idea how I did it)

And TA-DA!

 

 A stocking that a 49er fan is very happy with!

And a stocking that a seamstress is super proud of!

I can't wait to hang them up!!

til next time,

nik

A (very) easy and (very) cheap dog bed!

Did you know that dog beds range from $40 up to like $100!?!?!? I was shocked! I knew there had to be an easy and much, much cheaper way to make a dog bed. So I headed on over to the thrift store. After playing around with a couple ideas, we decided a comforter inside a fleece blanket would be soft, warm, and easy to clean (in case of accidents).

The comforter cost me $5 and the fleece was $3 (thank goodnesss for 50% off days!!)

I sewed the fleece blanket in half. I just followed along the seam that was already there so no pinning! (Score! I hate pinning!)

I sewed two sides and left the third open so I could stuff the blanket inside. When I got to the corner I just followed the seam right around.

Then I flipped the blanket inside out so my seam was on the inside.

And I stuffed that comforter inside!

 

And actually I had to steal some old shirts of my husbands to stuff inside because the comforter was a little bit shorter than the fleece. When we were at the store we were debating about getting a sheet to stuff inside but I thought that would be too much. When I got to this point I was really wishing I had gotten that sheet!

Then I laid the whole bed on my sewing table. That made it easier to sew the last side shut.

Because this was for my dogs, I wasn't big on sewing the whole side by hand so that the seam wouldn't show. I just sewed it shut.

The whole project probably took me twenty minutes and that was with taking pictures and going to find old shirts. It cost me less than $10, all I had to buy was the comforter and blanket, I already had thread and everything else.

Oh, and the dogs love it.

I told them to sit on their beds and act happy, so they did! I even made another bed for them so they wouldn't have to share and that one cost less than $10 too!

til next time,
nik