Advents calendar stocking tutorial

I had a few people asking for a tutorial for my Advents calendar stockings . So I thought I oblige as we are nearing Christmas in alarming speed !

Few important points up front:

• This is an excellent way to use leftovers from past Christmas crafting ventures, though I am using a fat quarter set of Michael Millers's 2011 Christmas collection (as I didn't have enough leftovers)
• My stockings are lined but I don't think that this is strictly necessary - I just like them to look neat
• The individual stockings aren't particularly large as they are just meant for small little somethings through the time of Advent but I have created two template sizes as I want to make 4 stockings that are larger for the Advent Sundays.
• I choose to make each months 4 (or 8 every two month as I tend to forget !) but you can easily make a little production line and get it over and done with in one weekend

Material:

• patterned cotton scraps from past x-mas or a fat eights or fat quarter set of a new collection (that is plenty and will give you enough to make other bits for the festive period)
• leftover wadding
• solid cotton scraps for lining (but you could also use patterned here if you prefer)
• cotton thread for piecing
• cotton thread for quilting
• Template(s) can be downloaded here (The smaller one is to be used for 20 stockings and the larger one for 4 as I want to have a "larger" present for the Advent Sundays

Take a piece of fabric and fold it over from left to right as in the picture. This is important when you have a directional print as you don't want to end up having one half of the stocking upside down.

Download the stocking template, cut it out along the line and pin it onto the folded fabric. Then cut out the first stocking. 1/4 inch seam allowance is already included in the template !

You will end up with two stockings like this where the directional prints go into the same direction.

Then repeat the same process with the wadding and the lining (though you don't need to worry about print direction here). You should end up with 3 pair of booties like in the image below.

Next take your print booties and your wadding booties, pin them together and quilt in which ever pattern you prefer. I have chose to do diagonal lines that form a diamond pattern. I have not marked any lines here and just started to quilt from the top left corner to the bottom right corner and then set the quilt guide on my machine to a 3/4 inch distance and kept this for the subsequent lines. When have you done this with both stocking halfs it should look like this.

Now cut 2 strips of contrasting fabric that are each 4 x 2 inches.

Turn the strips right sides down and press the long edges a 1/4 inch toward the wrong side.You can either finger press this or use and iron - I am using an iron.

Then turn the strips around, place them on the stocking halfs a 1/4 inch below the top edge thereby taking care that the folded and pressed edges are turned in. Then top stitch along the top and bottom edge to secure the strip to the stocking.

It should look like this (sorry for the blurred photo):
The reason why I am doing these sort of fake cuffs is to minimize bulk. There are tutorials around for stockings with great cuffs but these are for large stocking and not for tiny ones likes these that are made into an Advent calendar.

Cut the excess fabric off to get a clean edge.

Take both booties, put the right sides together and stitch a 1/4 around the whole stocking with the exception of the opening at the top !

Now take both lining stocking halfs and sew them together in the same manner.

Almost there. Now we put the patterned stocking and lining stocking together.  Take the patterned stocking and turn the wadding side inside and the patterned side outside (the way it should look finished) and simply put the lining stocking with the wrong side outside (!) over it.

Stitch a scant 1/4 inch along the top leaving a large enough area open to turn the stocking around. Make sure you stitch over both side seams  (see black arrows in photo) which means you would leave the area between the side seam on one side of the stocking open to turn it around. The reason why I am asking to do this will become clear in a moment.

Turn the stocking inside out. You will end up with this. The stocking will be almost finished with the right side on the outside. Tuck the lining into the stocking make sure to push it right into the corners.
The only thing that is now left to do is close the opening you have used to turn the stocking around with a few hand sewn stitches. And it is much quicker to close this if you don't have to do it over the somewhat bulky side seams.

Done !

 And in no time you have a bunch of these:

And yes I am behind again. By the end of this month I will have to have produced 16 in total.....better get on with it then.

Please let me know if something is not clear, wrong or confusion. This my first big tutorial and I would be grateful if you could  give me honest feedback as only then I can learn from mistakes.

Advent calendar

Yes you read correctly. I know, I know we are only halfway through Spring and I am talking about x-mas. And the funny thing is I am not even a big Christmas person. I bit more these days though because I have a little 3 year old nephew but generally we keep it low key in the family.

But here is the thing. Last year when I visited my sisters Anja in December for a few trips to a proper Christmas Market (in Bremen) she had put up an Advent calendar for Hauke (her son, my nephew) which was some improvised thing where she put little presents in patterned tissue paper on a string.

It was a poor attempt, no point in talking it sweet. And of course I wasted no time in telling her to which she responded something along the lines that it was me who was the creative in the family who could do something about it. So I offered to sew something much nicer for this year Christmas.

So, my plan is to sew a couple of those little stockings every months so I won't have to do something in a mad rush 3 days before Advent starts. Besides I am channeling here my inner and outer German organisation skills.

I bought some discounted x-mas fabric from last year at my local quilt shop but I have also ordered some new patterns from Michael Miller that will hopefully arrive in the next couple of weeks.

I have made a separate Advent calendar page on the blog where I add images of each new little stocking I make so you can follow my progress. Last night I made two and it really was great fun. I might even make enough for two calendars. I couldn't put both of them together on the rope as I only have one wooden cloth peg at the moment and that is even borrowed from my lovely neighbours. I want to secure the stockings with wooden cloth pegs because then my sister can put the calender high enough so Hauke can't raid it early but she can also take the stockings off easily to give every day one to him so he can find his little present in there. I won't put any numbers on the stocking as I think they are to small and it would clutter the design unnecessarily but might do something with numbers on the pegs. Let's see.
Anyone fancy a tutorial on how to make this Advent calendar ?