Christmas Stockings

I had a dilemma. I didn't want to send my missionary son his same Christmas stocking that he grew up with (what if he lost it? left it behind?) and I also didn't want to get him one of those basic red & white numbers from the dollar store (huge, and, kinda dumb, really). Not to mention, what is he supposed to do with it between now and next Christmas? Or would I have to come up with another one next year? What to do? I mulled it over for quite a while. Days, in fact. I was coming up on the day I had to mail his package, and I still had nothing.

And then, it hit me. I was planning on making him some fleece socks anyway, and I realized that I could put a fur cuff on the top, with a hanging loop, and just make it so he could remove these when Christmas was over.

I used black fleece (he's not much for color) and sewed up the socks as usual. (I use a pattern from Green Pepper, 527, which has all the sizes, child to adult. It says slippers, but I make them without folding down the cuff - I just leave it.)

I then took some strips of white fleece/fur (very silky, soft - no idea where or when I got it), about 4" wide and about 1/2" longer than the circumference of the top of the socks. Sewed the short ends together, rights sides facing, then folded it over the long way, wrong sides together, and sewed all around, making this into a cuff. I had some leftover pieces from his PJ top, in black knit, which I cut into skinny strips (about 1" wide) and pulled them to make them roll up into strings, to use for hanging loops. Sewed that onto the inside of the cuff, making sure it was totally secure.

Once I had the cuffs ready, I put my sewing machine on the longest basting stitch, and sewed them onto the tops of the stockings. Easy to remove the stitching later, so they could be socks, but in the meantime, they'd make a cute Christmas stocking.

I put in instructions for him, on how to remove the cuffs, and filled up both stockings with the usual Christmas stocking contents. (Doing the cuff on just one didn't seem right.)

After I'd mailed everything off, and was showing off the pictures and telling everyone how creative I was, it occurred to me that my boy was just the sort of kid to wear them as-is, without taking off the furry cuff.

Turns out, I was right.