Hey folks! This is Crystal from Ginger Dimples and I’m super excited to share this tutorial on how to switch up THE stocking by the talented Robin Hill that you are going to make. It’s a free pattern, so I've decided that you are, indeed, going to make one. Anyway, I was thinking of how to Crystalfy this up when I heard a Christmas song by Ella Fitzgerald. It’s called “Santa Claus Got Stuck in my Chimney”. After I filtered the dirty thoughts, craft inspiration hit!

I am JOLLY, just jolly, about sharing this with you. And I have made TWO versions for you. WHAT?!?! Yup! There’s a nice and mature version for those of you that crave order on your hearth, and there’s the fun and kid-ish version those of you that like a little cookie crumb on your shirt.

2 Santas going down the chimney tonight. One slid right down, and the other’s stuck real tight!

Here’s how to change it up!

The first thing I did was sponge paint “bricks” onto some burlap. I used a plain old kitchen sponge and rounded the corners with my scissors. My paint was Tulip brand dimensional fabric paint that I picked up from Hancock with a coupon. I cut my stocking shape out before painting because I wanted the bricks to be placed exactly where I needed them… because I’m crazy. Make sure to paint your fabric (or burlap if you choose) BEFORE you fuse to your fusible fleece. And make sure you paint on a surface that you don’t care about. I painted on a $1 piece of foam core board from Dollar tree.

The next change I made was adding a belt and buckle to the fold over thingy doobob mahicky…I have no idea what that’s called. I’ll call it a flap. This is done BEFORE you sew your flap pieces together into a loop at the sides. For the belt, I cut a piece of black fabric 3” x 17.5” and pressed the long ends towards the center. Then, I just centered it on my MAIN flap piece (NOT the lining) and top stitched it into place. Here’s your picture for that. It’s VERY high tech:

For the buckle, I cut a felt square 2”x2” with a 1” square cut out of the middle. Then I attacked it with glue and glitter. A thick layer of fabric glue on the felt held the glitter on. The Elmer’s glue made me hate everything. Even with the use of fabric glue, the glitter still falls a little and covers everything, but so do all of my other Christmas decorations. I just accept it and moved on. Glitter is gonna happen at Christmas time. Hold on to that buckle for now. We’ll attach it later.

FOR THE NO FEET (or “no fun” version, you Scrooges) :

Assemble the rest of the stocking as directed in the tutorial

For FOOTED version:

I made these little feet by hand drawing them. I’ve actually made a little template for you. Merry Christmas; don’t expect another gift. You can download it HERE.

Cut 4 of the whole leg template in your red fabric. Then trim the pattern at the dotted line and cut 4 out of black fabric.

Then you’re going to fold the top of each black piece under ¼” and press. Lay it on top of your red piece and top stitch into place. You can then trim the excess off of the sides. After that’s done, add some white ric-rac just over the top of the “boots” and stitch it down. Trim that down too.

Now place 2 of the legs right sides together and stitch around the sides and bottom leaving the top of the leg open for stuffing. Repeat for the second leg. Clip corners, trim seams and turn. Now stuff the crap out of them. You want to make sure to get enough stuffing in them to stand up straight, but make sure to leave 3/8” at the top for attaching.

Center your legs on the front of the main flap piece (you will eventually place the buckle centered between them) and stitch them down ¼”. I didn't get a picture of this, so enjoy this lovely drawing…

Now Assemble the rest of the stocking as directed in the tutorial

BOTH VERSIONS

Once you’re all sewn up, glue your buckle to the center of the belt on your front flap. You can use whatever glue you love. I used hot glue because it dries quickly and I have no patience.