Last One

The fourth and final marbled Christmas stocking is finished!  Well, except for the bell, which the 18 month old promptly ripped off. 

So I didn't go with a total Vikings theme, because I saw a very, very slight hint of teal within the marble waves.  Can you see it, too?

No?  It's there.  I used this sparkly ribbon again for the loop.  I also wrapped it around the edge of the ribbon that bound the rough seams at the top.  The bottom of the ribbon was kind of rough, so the teal sparkles hid that.

OOOH!  See, in that section of marble you can see a speck of teal.

It's another skinny stocking, but it's my husband's and he'll probably only ever get little bits of chocolate in it, so that's no big deal.

The back is pretty.  I used an Asian floral that I had cut up for an aborted stocking design, so I was glad that I could put it to use.

Ugh.  I see that I need to go try and turn that heel out a little bit more.  It should be less boxy.  

As soon as I put up evenly spaced hooks, I'll take a picture of all four stockings together.  Yay!

Tis Nearly the Season...Again

As previously mentioned here and here, I have been working on our Christmas stockings using the marbled fabrics from my marbling class at The Textile Center.

For the third stocking, I used the piece of cotton that I marbled:

I was really lucky to figure out what to do with these small slivers of fabric.  They really are no bigger than a sheet of printer paper.  

I used the exact same pattern that I used with the purple stocking, because these two are for the girls and, from experience, I know that it is better to have stockings the same size when siblings are involved.  I don't want to listen to them bitching for the next 20 years that so-and-so's stocking is 1/8" larger.  Little stinkers.

I'm still trying to get that bow to perk up a bit.  I was going to wrap it around the top of the stocking, but when I finished the top with the gold shiny bias tape, that had more appeal.

The inside is a bright orange polyester, which complements the orange in the ribbon.

I love how the marble fabrics bring everything to life.  So fun.  It's cut off at the edge of this photo, but I used a sequin embellishment to patch a hole made by that rose satin.  Once that was tacked on, another hole appeared, so I added another strip of a different gold ribbon.  What a mess!  This all happened before I attached the backing and the lining, which was lucky.  

This stocking and the purple one have a fusible fleece lining, as per the directions.  It really makes them much less limp than the original stocking.  Anyway, I backed it with pink corduroy that I had to patch together in order to get enough fabric, which gives it some added stiffness, as well.

Do you see the slice of orange fabric, between the black and the marble?  That is the cuff of an old shirt -- you can even see the button holes.  I can't remember how that made it into my scrap stash.  Was it stained?  Ripped?  I thought about putting a sparkly button on the stocking, but I rather like seeing evidence of its past life.

Z chose the purple stocking, so this one belongs to Miss Trix.  Their names are not embroidered on them, so they can really switch them up every year if they want.

I have yet to make the fourth stocking.  I realized as I was writing this and looking over my original post about these marbled fabrics that I made a fourth fabric.  I wasn't sure how I was going to tie my husband's stocking in to the marble theme without taking another class or cutting up a nice fat quarter that was made by the instructor, but then I was reminded of this ugly piece:

Vikings!  I think I can make it into a pretty stocking with golds and purples and whites or silvers.  Maybe?  First I have to find it.  I doubt I would have thrown it out (I rarely throw anything out - Craft Hoarder!).

Tis Nearly the Season

I realized that I never followed through with making any more elf stockings for our Christmas mantle.  It's the story of my crafting life these days.  As a refresher, I made this stocking earlier this year:

It's super skinny.  I can't even fit my hand down to the heel.  It doesn't matter, really, because I doubt anyone will ever put anything in it...It's my stocking.  I have since added a bell and patched a hole with some velvet ribbon.  It's ready to go!

I decided to tackle the other stockings before my Xmas crafting season gets underway.  I really should've started the gift making first, but this was much easier and more fun.  For the next two stockings I used a commercial pattern:  McCall's M5261 (out of print).  I had to flip the pattern so that the toe pointed to the right, though I really only used one piece of the pattern in order to get a better sized stocking.  

I marbled four pieces of fabric when I took that marbling class.  I used the gold piece in the above stocking.  I used this piece for the next stocking:

 It's a sturdy polyester, so it held up a lot better than the gold when I was sewing it.  And here's the result:

I changed the toe from the original pattern for a more elfin appearance.  I love all these colors!  I used faux purple fur from a failed bunny costume from a few years ago as the top cuff and I embellished it with some weird strands of home dec rope things:

I backed it with some light green that I had to piece together to make enough to fit.

I added some decorative stitches to the toe because the fabrics were a bit warped at that seam.  I still need to add a bell to the tippy toe, but I only have red or gold bells and it needs a silver bell.  Actually, I think I have one silver bell somewhere -- it was the bell from the cat's broken collar.  I figured I would find a use for it instead of throwing it into the landfill, but it's small and I can't remember where I stuck it.

As it's been hanging on the mantle for a day or two, I realized that the stocking needs more sparkle, so I may add some sequins to some of the seams.  I have those strands of sequins, so it would be a really quick and easy addition.

I also want to find some little craft letters for each of our initials and glitter them up.  I thought they could hang on the same hook to designate each person's stocking.

Stay tuned later this week for Stocking #3!

Color Update

Six months ago I found an umbrella stand at an antique shop and the goal was to spray paint it a new color this summer.  I never got around to it in the summer, but since our autumn has been so mild, I ended up doing it a few weeks ago.

I had three extra cans of spray paint left over from the play house renovation, so I took them back to the hardware store and exchanged them for a can of gold, a can of teal, and a can of clear.

 Teal and gold!  I left the interior black and I didn't do anything with that silver top piece, see below.  I need to find a little finial thing to screw into it, but I don't think I need to spray it. 

Breach

My toddler...wait, she's no longer a toddler.  I keep forgetting that.  My nearly four year old daughter has never been allowed in my craft room, but this weekend I let her in.  She asked me from outside the gate for something special from within the room, so I lifted her up, put her smack dab in the middle of it, and said, "Now, something special is in my room."

She wasn't impressed.

She quickly honed in on every single pokey, sharp, dangerous implement in that room.  Pincushion?  Yup.  Seam ripper?  You betcha!  Ugh.   And then she found the dollhouse that I plan on refinishing.  She was pretty smitten and started playing with all the little pieces of furniture that came with it.

So cute.  She then asked me to make her some people.  Double cute!  So I scoured the mess and spied some empty thread spools and a blue Sharpie.  Instant people!

So now I have to get on this house again, but not until after Christmas.  Maybe I can do it by her birthday?  I don't know.  I had other plans for a birthday gift (puppet theatre?), but I don't think I can do both.  

Halloween!

Here they are!  The Rainbow and Little Sun:

 
I took inspiration for the rainbow from A Subtle Revelry,  Costume Works, and a pinned Etsy item that is no longer available.  I took one large half circle of the red for the backing, then I sewed some heavy interfacing to that, and then I started working on the front of the rainbow.  I sewed a line of each color, slightly overlapping the first.  Then I added a line of clouds and stuffed that to give it some puffiness.

There's that shiny pot of gold!  Anyway, then I just repeated the process for the back.  My favorite parts, though, are the straps:

Rainbow elastic!  What a good little find at Treadle Yard Goods.  I don't know if she took much notice, but I was thrilled about it.  Red would have made the straps blend in with her fleece, but...rainbow straps!

Anyway, I sewed up from the bottom to almost the armpit to keep the rainbow from flopping about too much.  Here she is from the side:

The clouds are sewed on at the peak of each puff -- some of them came apart when she wore the outfit to her class party, but they were easily re-tacked.  

As for that little sun, I took an oval of heavy interfacing, sewed a yellow oval onto it and then sewed on orange and yellow triangles.  I glued on the face.

There were elastic straps at the shoulders and sides, but she cried like crazy when we wore it out to ZooBoo and then one of them snapped when she resisted efforts by her teachers to put it on for her class party.  I tricked her into wearing it for Halloween pictures by using diaper safety pins and attaching it to her coat.  She whined a bit when she saw it coming, but it didn't seem to bother her once it was on.

Her bucket was a pail that I glued stuffing onto.  She never went out for candy, but it served as a cute prop and it can easily be turned back into a pail.

Here are the costumes from the back:

And one more shot of cuteness: