This year I made 33 felt stocking ornaments to give away. I wanted to make an ornament that was cute and simple. And I wanted to be able to use items from my stash, rather than buying new materials. The idea for these felt stocking ornaments came from the Mitten Ornaments I made in 1998. Here's how I did it.

 

		First I found a stocking shape that I liked. I found a photo of a finished stocking in a magazine and photocopied it. The image was small, so I enlarged it on my copier. I adjusted the shape a bit, cut out the paper copy, traced it on a piece of card stock, and cut out the cardboard stocking to use as my template.
		Using a ballpoint pen, I traced the template onto felt rectangles — the kind you get at a craft store. I made 16 of my stockings red, the other 17 were green. I found I was able to fit eight stocking shapes on each piece of felt. I then pinned an unmarked felt square to the back of the marked felt square, and cut out the shapes. This way I would have two stocking shapes exactly alike (a front and a back). So even if my cutting wasn't completely accurate, I knew these two shapes would be exactly alike. I pinned each front and back together.
		Next I found my striped fabric. This was actually an old knit tank top that I bought at a thrift store for a quarter. The scale of the stripe was perfect. So I just cut the shirt up into usable pieces. I ironed some fusible web onto the back of the fabric following the manufacturer's instructions. Fusible web is basically a web of glue on a piece of heat-resistant paper. I pressed the glue side of the web onto the back of the striped fabric. I then made a candy cane template out of cardboard. When I traced the template onto the fusible web paper, I put it at an angle so that the stripes look like they are wrapping around the candy cane. The shirt fabric had some holes in it, so I traced more shapes than needed. I found that was easier than trying to avoid the small holes. When I cut the candy canes from the fabric, I just discarded the shapes that had holes in them. Even though the fabric was a knit, I did not have any trouble with fraying because the glue of the fusible web held the fabric in place.
		I removed the paper from the back of the candy canes. Then I placed the candy cane onto the front of the stocking and, using a hot iron, adhered the candy cane to the stocking. Again, follow the manufacturer's instructions. The candy cane stuck to the stocking just fine. So more for appearance than out of necessity, I stitched around the edge of the candy cane with a whip stitch, using red thread. (Stitching not shown in this image).
		I used 3/16" (5mm) polyester picot edged satin ribbon for the hangers. I cut the ribbon into 4-1/2" lengths. I used a red ribbon hanger on the green stockings and a green ribbon hanger on the red stockings. I took one length of ribbon, folded it in half, and pinned it into place at the top of the stocking.
		It took me a while to figure out a good way to do this next step. I finally came up with an excellent idea. I traced my stocking template onto a piece of plain paper. I then cut off 1/4" around the entire shape, except for the top edge. I then marked tick marks every 1/4" around the edge of the paper stocking. This way, I could line the top of the paper stocking up with the top of the felt stocking (front and back) and pin it into place. I then stitched around the edge of the stocking using a blanket stitch and white perle coton #12. I placed one stitch at each tick mark. This helped to keep my stitching uniform. Each stitch was 1/4" long and 1/4" away from its neighbor. I stitched the ribbon hanger into the stocking as I stitched the side with the blanket stitch.
		I next cut lengths of lace about 4-1/4" long. I let the scallop of the lace help determine the length. Each piece was long enough to go around the front and back of the stocking, with a little bit of overlap in the back. Again, trial and error helped determine the best way to attach the lace. I ended up using a running stitch with white thread along the top edge of the lace to attach it to the stocking. But I also tried a whip stitch. It may be possible to just glue the lace on or use a thin strip of fusible web or Stitch Witchery. I like to sew more than glue, so I used the method that suits my own preferences.
		Next, I created a bow with a button center. It's incredibly simple! First I cut rectangles out of a plaid fabric using pinking shears. Mine are about 1-3/4" wide by 1" high. You can make your bows to the proportion that is most pleasing to you. Then I found a variety of buttons. I chose mostly red, green and white from my button drawer — some of which came from my grandmother! Find interesting buttons that compliment your bow fabric. Or use novelty buttons like angels, stars, or gingerbread boys. I used what I had on hand, and found that the 2-hole buttons worked more easily that 4-hole buttons or buttons with a shank. Then just pinch the bow fabric in the middle (I made an accordion pleat), and sew it into place. I found that if I tacked the bow in place with one stitch, then sewed the button on top of the pleat, that gave me the tidiest finished bow.
		The final step was making my tags. I did this using the label template in my word processing program. Mine say, "Merry Christmas 2004! Handmade by Margaret Davaz." I printed the labels on a golden parchment card stock. I cut them with fancy-edged scissors, punched a tiny hole in it, and attached the tags to my ornaments around the hanging ribbon with a piece of white perle coton #12.
		The completed felt stocking ornament!