Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas For Families
Stories awaken our imagination, crafts connect us to the past, put them together and you have 5 Christmas inspired story themed stocking ideas!
In this blog post I will be showing you inspirations for a
Nutcracker Ballet themed stocking,
Little Drummer Boy stocking
T’was Night Before Christmas stocking
How The Grinch Stole Christmas stocking
And the Gingerbread Man themed stocking!
Let’s get started!
Bringing The Past To The Present
Does your family have a favorite recipe? We have many. My mother in law has given us a delicious and super easy sugar cookie recipe. The other mother in law gave us a meatloaf recipe that my children are always super excited to eat!
My mother has passed down a baking powder biscuit recipe that is fast and so good! She actually got it from my dad, who found it on his mission in the early 60’s.
Just like food, fiber arts or other crafts connect us to the past. Our grandmothers, knitted stockings, and mittens, and we can too! The stitches are the same, the yarn we can use is like the yarn they used. The basic hand sewing stitches have not changed. Finger knitting has not changed. We can still make socks, curtains, clothes, bags and so much more, like our grandparents, did and our great grandparents did. What we make will look different with the changes of style and color of course, but it is similar!
What stories could our families share with us through these beautiful things they have made? Who was it for? How did you learn how to make that?
What stories and experiences can we share with our children now?
It is all rather exciting when you stop to think of it!
Christmas Stocking Tradition
Christmas stockings have been part of the Christmas tradition since 1823, at least according to the resource I found using a quick google search. I bet there are family favorite living books that have stockings as part of the family tradition. The one I remember the best is The Little House Series, where Laura and Mary found a cup, cookie, and a candy stick! Here is a link to a book that only has the Christmas stories from the series in it. My children love it!
Though we don’t hang our own used socks up anymore, it is still a beloved part of many families’ Christmas traditions, including my own family.
We had a mostly garage fire, where we lost many things including our Christmas decorations. Among them were our stockings. Since we are a reading loving family, I thought it it would be fun to make each stocking inspired by a loved Christmas story. Though I was sad about losing our old stockings, I was excited about creating new ones!
Today I will be sharing 5 stocking ideas to inspire you in your handmade Christmas stocking sewing this year! They are the ones that I have made for my children to replace our burnt stockings.
My Basic Process For Each Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
I started each of my stockings with drawing the idea out on paper using a pencil because I erase a lot.
Then I figure out which pieces of the stocking will be made with felt. I make paper patterns for each of these so I can cut out the felt pieces easily.
When I need finer lines, I bring our my embroidery floss. Using felt for details really doesn’t work.
When a felt piece won’t work I use wool felting.
To make the people I often turn them into a 3D doll, depending on how the flat versions look. Wood beads make great heads and hands and I use wool for hair.
The glue gun is my friend for it makes attaching all these pieces together soooo much easier!
The stocking themselves I did not make. I bought them at Hobby Lobby. I picked plain colored stockings in green, red, and white.
Now let’s look at each stocking one by one.
Nutcracker Ballet Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
I have a daughter who loved dancing to the music from the Nutcracker ballet! She even dressed as Marie from the NYC ballet’s version for Halloween one year.
The Christmas tree I needle felted. The tree decorations have red ribbon, red and white beads for glass balls, felt candles, and a wood star on top that came in the same package as the wood gifts below the tree.
The clock is a piece of felt, with gold embroidery for the outlines. Most of the stitches I used a simple back stitch for.
Clara/Marie’s body is made of felt and is 3D. I have a tutorial on a Christmas sweater ornament that is basically the same method I used to make the body and arms. You can find this DIY here.
The head and hands are just wooden beads. I drew the face on with colored pencils.
She did have a tiny clay nutcracker in her arms but some little curious child, broke it off. As I am writing this, just yesterday I found the clay mold I used to make the tiny nutcracker so I can finally remake it! I am sure it won’t be the only time I will remake it.
I found the mold on Etsy and here is a very similar one to the one I used.
Little Drummer Boy Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
My second child is a boy and when he was little he loved this story song! His grandmother bought him a little drum that he loved and pretended he was the little drummer boy.
The stars are embroidered using the very basic straight stitch. I have a handicraft lesson that teaches the straight stitch for your children found here.
The stable is brown felt with a blanket stitch around it to give it a cutesy look. I have a tutorial for this in my basic hand sewing lessons found here.
Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are 3D like Clara above with wooden beads for the hands and face. Baby Jesus’s blanket is square piece of felt folded and glue gunned together. The Christmas sweater tutorial gives you the basic method for making a doll with just a different shape. This can be found here.
The manger is a quarter of a walnut shell with fake grass glued inside. As you can see this has broken but it is still hanging on to the stocking!
Sheep is made from white felt and white wool. I rolled the wool in-between my hands as if I was shaping a ball out of clay to make the wool a little more dense.
Burlap creates the trunk of the palm tree, and felt cutouts for the palms. Warning, after you cut the burlap glue on quickly for it likes to unravel once it is cut!
T’was The Night Before Christmas Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
My third child wanted T’was The Night Before Christmas for his stocking. He has enjoyed this poem since he was a little fellow. He wanted to be part of the design so we came up with this together.
The two trees and the snow are made of wool felt. The small bits of snow I created with the glue gun.
The bricks, windows, doors, and porch outlines I embroidered using the simple back stitch. Around the whole house was the blanket stitch.
The snow for the house is the same as the yard. It is made with white wool felt with glue gun streaks. The wreath was made out of green felted wool.
I made the sparkling Christmas lights out of gold and silver glitter glue I buy at the Dollar Tree.
Many failed attempts at the reindeer using felt or wool led me to desperately search for wood reindeer. Thankfully I found some! Well the actually look more like moose than reindeer but it was close enough!
Santa’s sleigh was made from a wool sweater which didn’t cut well, but I ran out of time and patience to go buy another felt piece, so I made it work any way!
How The Grinch Stole Christmas Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
My fourth child, and third boy, picked How The Grinch Stole Christmas. It has been one of his favorites for several years and still is.
He picked this scene for his stocking which I was glad of because it made my job easier.
Layers of felt and many back stitches made the chimney and wire above it.
The Grinch is made of felt and wool. Again I thank the glue gun for attaching everything quick and easy!
I tried using felt for the log, and embroidering in the details, but it did not work so my front yard tree had just the thing I needed!
Wooden heads again with a wool pillow. Felt for the rest of the bed. I gave up trying to keep the glue from showing. I think it adds the the handmade look which I like.
The mouse and crumb were made with polymer clay found at most craft stores. The mouse and crumb were to small to use felt for.
Gingerbread Man Handmade Christmas Stocking Ideas
Lastly for today, is my next and 5th child’s stocking. I suggested The Gingerbread Man because he loves to recite, “run run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” He also loves to help me make gingerbread men cookies.
My little fellow wanted the gingerbread man coming out of the oven which gave me the idea to make the oven closeable!
I sewed on the button and made a button hole and sewed blanket stitches around to make it look like a button hole even though I didn’t need to worry about felt unraveling. The oven door has the blanket stitch around it as well.
Around the oven opening I used the chain stitch which is the only time I have used it so far. I have a tutorial for this here. I used the back stitch for the oven racks.
The gingerbread man himself is a 3D doll using the same method used in my gingerbread man ornament doll DIY, except I just stuffed this smaller versions tummy and I used my favorite blanket stitch. You can find the tutorial here.
The rug I crocheted in a spire because it needed some color and something in the toe. I do have something for the toe in each stocking because, without something in the toe, it looks lopsided.
Before You Go!
I hope you are inspired to make your own handmade Christmas stockings this year! It would be a fun project for your older children as well.
We talked about embroidering on felt, using the glue gun, making your own template patterns, easy dolls, adding wool felt to your creations, and more. Using my tips will help with your creating whatever stockings your family will love!
Which one was your favorite? Which story are you most inspired from? What Christmas stories does your family love? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for stopping by!
