Make It: DIY holiday sweater stockings

If your closet has collected a number of ugly Christmas sweaters, or you’ve outgrown a few over the last year, put them to good use by hanging them on your mantle this holiday season.

Of course, you don’t need to hang the entire sweater, but instead follow these simple directions to create some crafty, vintage-inspired stockings.

Recycled Sweater Stockings
What you’ll need:

• 1-2 old sweaters
• Scissors
• Needle and thread (if sewing by hand)
• Pins
• Sewing machine
• Decorations – pompoms, ribbons, sequins, etc.
• Newspaper
• Marker

Draw your pattern onto the newspaper and cut out. (downloadable possibly)

Turn your sweater inside out, folding the bottom edge down about 2 inches.

Lay your pattern over the sweater and draw around it. Pin  both the layers of the sweater together. If you’ve got enough material, you can trace out two patterns onto the sweater.

Cut out your stocking, about one and half inches outside of where the pattern is drawn on.

At this point, you’ll need to unpin the top and fold the bottom edge in the other direction, tucking it inside your stocking. It will show on the outside once you’ve sewn it up and turned it inside out.

Re-pin the top.

With your needle and thread or using your sewing machine, sew along the outline you’ve drawn on. Trim any leftover material and turn inside-out.

Now, it’s time to decorate. If you’re handy with thread, you can embroider names, or sew on felt letters to personalize your stockings.

Add ribbon, cut out felt designs or sew on sequins.

Cut a 5-6 inch piece of ribbon and sew the ends to opposite sides of the stockings as a loop to hang your stockings by the fire, ready to be filled with sweets and treats when Santa arrives!

 

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Twinkle VanWinkle ponders, creates and discovers cool stuff about music, movies, food, fashion and so forth. Her thoughtful writings and interactives give great advice about healthy food, cooking tips, DIY projects, fashion and more. She’ll teach you a thing or two about music as well. Along with producing dynamic lifestyle content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.