Dear community,
in this blog post you can find detailed instructions for making embroidered Christmas stockings (with free embroidery template).

Welcome to the 2016 BERNINA Advent Calendar! I’m very excited to be beginning this journey through 24 great sewing and embroidery projects with you!

I thought long and hard about what creative project to surprise you with this year. In the end I decided on a multi-functional ITH embroidery project. You can either embroider a beautiful Advent Calendar – after all, Advent happens every year – or you can make the pretty little Christmas stockings without numbering them and pack them full of small gifts.

But what is an ITH project? The abbreviation stands for “in the hoop” and simply means that a sewing project can be done entirely with your embroidery machine. Hard to believe – but it’s true! Each one of these Christmas stockings emerges from the embroidery machine finished and ready to go! Well, of course they still need to be trimmed and turned inside out…

But let’s start at the beginning. First of all, we need to get the material ready.

Material requirements for a small Christmas stocking

• The measurements are just a guideline. The pieces of fabric can also be bigger, but preferably not much smaller…!
• 1 17 x 23 cm cotton front | Fabric 1
• 1 17 x 46 cm cotton back | Fabric 2
• 1 17 x 23 cm cotton lining | Fabric 3
• 1 6 x 12 cm natural white cotton fleece for the brim | Fabric 4
• 1 5 x 5 cm natural white cotton fleece for appliqué | Fabric 5
• 1 6 cm satin ribbon
• 2 times 17 x 22 cm thin volume fleece
• Embroidery fleece to fit the oval hoop
• Machine embroidery thread in matching colour
• Bobbin thread

Download free embroidery file for the Christmas stockings

You can find the embroidery file ready to download on the following link. Please note that this is for private use only. If you wish to use the file for commercial purposes, you are welcome to contact me by email via the contact page of this blog.

Christmas stockings

Let’s get started!

Start by stretching a large enough piece of stabiliser in the oval hoop. Place a piece of volume fleece on top (Fleece 1). The first sequence will fix the fleece in place.

Now place Fabric 1 in the hoop extending at least 1 cm beyond the guideline all the way round. Choose the orientation of your pattern depending on the design. Sequence 2 fixes this fabric in place.

Now lay the cotton fleece (Fabric 4) flush with the guideline to form the brim, then push it up by about 5 mm. Sequence 3 fixes this part in place.

Now fold the fleece up and smooth it out. Sequence 4 fixes the brim in place.

Sequence 5 embroiders the guideline for the number button.

Lay the cotton fleece (Fabric 6) on top and embroider it in place with Sequence 6.

Now take the hoop out of the machine – but don’t take the fleece out of the hoop! Cut the excess cotton fleece away as close to the edge as possible without damaging the seam.

Use Sequence 7 to embroider the decorative seam along the edge. I love the way the new B 700 works with my metallic threads! To prevent it sinking too far down in my fluffy fleece, I place a piece of washable fleece over the fabric.

Sequence 8 embroiders the number.

Sequence 9 embroiders the guideline for the satin ribbon.

At this point we add the satin ribbon, folded in a loop, and fix it in place with Sequence 10.

Now it starts to get really exciting! An ITH project is structured differently from a sewing project. We fold the fabric in half along the short side, with the left side facing inwards. This is where we lay our remaining volume fleece. This is all then placed in the embroidery hoop. The upper edge (raw edge) is sewn flush with the upper guideline of the stocking. The fold is then pulled down about 3 mm. This will enable you to fill the stocking later.

The next step fixes this section in place.

We’re nearly done! Lay Fabric 3 in the hoop, right sides together. The final embroidery sequence fixes this part in place.

Now take it out of the hoop and remove the stabiliser. Trim it all, leaving a seam allowance of 3-5 mm. Around the opening I leave a seam allowance of approx. 5-7 mm. Now turn it inside out. The lining is initially still outside. If you want you can close the opening at this point. Now turn the Christmas stocking inside out one more time, iron it and fill it! As you can see, my calendar is not quite ready yet…

If you want to make Christmas stockings without numbers, simply skip the relevant sequences.

I hope you enjoy having a go at these stockings. I wish you a wonderful Advent and hope you have lots of fun with the next 23 Advent projects here on our blog.

Lots of love – and see you soon!

from Claudia