Crafted Christmas stockings are, like, the pinnacle of craftiness. You know there’s a hard-core maker in the family when everyone has a handmade stocking (in my family it was my grandma; my mom has since taken up the tradition of knitting stockings for everyone).
If you’d like to cross stitch stockings for folks in your family or as a gift for someone else, Festive Christmas Stockings by Herrchners for Leisure Arts is a good place to start.
The book only has four patterns, but they’re cute and have lots of fun details.
The Celestial Angels Stocking, designed by Barbara Sestok, features three angels making music, as well as a moon and stars and a row of hearts and snowflakes at the top of the stocking. Her Nordic Santa Stocking has space for a name at the top and a Father Christmas style Santa holding a Christmas tree and carrying a sack of gifts. This one includes charts for all letters in upper and lower case.
Linda Bird designed the Nutcracker stocking, which has four different sizes of old nutcracker men, as well as a drum and a teddy bear. There’s space for a name in all caps and an uppercase alphabet is included.
Finally the project featured on the cover is the Jolly Snowman Stocking, designed by Alma Lynne Hayden. This one has a sort of snowman/clown hybrid and is decorated with hearts and little repeating patterns. There’s also room for a name here and another alphabet to work with.
The book describes how to make the stocking using fabric to line and back it. A couple of the projects also use trim on the edges of the stocking, and a couple use beads in the stitching to make it extra fancy.
The charts are large and easy to read and while the patterns aren’t for beginners, they’re definitely fun projects that the recipient is sure to use for years to come.
About the book: 32 pages, paperback, 4 patterns. Published 2016 by Leisure Arts. Available as an ebook for $7.99.
