Christmas Stockings - Reveal!

Christmas is a tricky time for the crafty blogger. When do you reveal the gifts you've been working on so the surprise isn't spoiled for the recipient? At the beginning of this year, my sister-in-law asked if I would make her family Christmas stockings. I'm glad she asked early, because these took me all year. Now that they have received them I am very proud to show you all this labor of love:

My in-laws are a family of four: Andi, her husband Brian, and their twins Ethan and Logan. All the name plates are reverse fusible applique. The font is Minya Nouvelle.

Both Andi and her mother are wonderfully talented gardeners, so I knew I wanted to do something floral for her stocking. And floral + Christmas = poinsettias! After some lengthy Google image searches for inspiration, I decided a stained glass poinsettia would be the most fun.

The colors are all fused to a piece of muslin. The black is done all as one piece - traced on to heavy-duty fusible, carefully cut (it looks like a giant spiderweb or a big lace doily at that stage), then carefully arranged over the background and fused and sewn in place.

I really floundered with a design for Brian's stocking. I had lots of ideas, and eventually decided that another stained glass design would look best as part of a pair with Andi's. It doesn't show in the picture, but some of the blues in the night sky have silver sparkles in them. All of the blues came from stash, so I dug through my scraps for a very long time, carefully arranging my palette in a color gradient.

If I floundered with Brian's design, I was downright flummoxed when it came to the twins. They will turn 6 this month; how to make something that would appeal to a 6-year-old boy that would still be treasured by the young man he would eventually become? Also, when creating something for twins, it's important not to make things too matchy.

I settled on a design of fair-isle applique. The 3-D effect would make it fun enough for a kid, and the simple, classic design would make it timeless enough for an heirloom. The snowflake design (which I showed my swatch of back in August) is out of Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting. The general mitten pattern came from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns.  The i-cord is sewn down in those loops.

The structure of this hat was based on the Andean Chullo (which I don't think is available anymore) at Knit Picks, minus the ear flaps. I dug up some free Christmas-y stitch patterns on the internet, did a little pattern in Excel, and voila! - stocking.  The i-cord is sewn down, but the tassels are free to wiggle in the wind.  Both the knitted pieces have been blocked, soaked in starch, and pressed to ensure maximum flatness.  It would be horrible to get to appliqueing these down and then have the stretchiness of the knitted item distort the stocking.

So there you go, my year-long Christmas project, which I have been DYING to show this whole time, finally revealed.  I'm so proud, and thrilled that the family likes their early Christmas gift.