The Year I Made Stockings for Everyone

In 2014, my family was stationed at a Military Base in Germany for three years. The second year we were there (2016), I had decided to get creative and try my hand at making stockings for everyone that Christmas.

My grandmother had sent me some really cute snowman fabric that year, which I really wanted to play around with. After a while of thinking about what I should do with it, I settled on making stockings.

I didn’t like using the sewing machine at the time (I’m honestly still not a big fan of it), so I decided to sew all of the stockings by hand. I had used an old stocking as the blueprint for these, traced it on the fabric, cut it out, and watched Christmas movies while slowly sewed the stockings together. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a new and exciting project for me to work on, and it was fun to make.

Each family member got just a few things stuffed into their stocking that year. My mothers stocking was my favorite, because it was mostly filled with jewelry that I had made, a beautiful hand carved rolling pin that I had bought at one of the local bazaars, and some windmill cookies and lights.

Those snowman stockings weren’t the only ones I had sewn by hand that year.. My all-time favorite stocking I had made that year was the ones I made out of old Military Uniforms! The Military was switching over to their new uniforms around this time, so my father and Uncle had a bunch of old uniforms they couldn’t use anymore. So, I decided to get creative with them!

I had made two stockings out of the Military Uniform. One for me, and one for my father. (Because if I was going to make one something this cute, I was getting one too!) Again, this was sewn by hand and not a machine. These were really tough to make, as the uniforms were super thick and the needle didn’t want to puncture through the fabric. (Of course, that’s the point of the uniforms, is to be tough as nails and protect the person wearing it. But it sure did make it hard to sew by hand!)

This wasn’t my first project with old Military Uniforms. So of course, I had a bunch of pockets left over from old cut up uniforms that I decided to incorporate into the stockings. Both stockings had pockets on the outside, the inside, and there were even pockets inside of the pockets! It was really funny to watch my father search through every single pocket to make sure he had gotten everything out of the stocking on Christmas Morning! Well worth the blistered fingers from trying to sew them on!

The previous year (2015), I had crocheted everyone’s stockings and filled them with candy, but those stockings were itty-bitty compared to these ones I had sewn. Sadly, I couldn’t find pictures of my crochet stockings from that year, so you’ll just have to take my word for how cute they were! 🧶🧦🎄

I love the Winter Holidays and everything that comes with it! I love that my family always finds crafts to do around Christmas time, and I love it when those crafts make the perfect Christmas gifts!

I hope you all are enjoying the Winter Season as much as I am! And as always, smile, have an amazing day, and make some Christmas Crafts!

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