Felt Stocking Project Completed!

I started this project maybe October 2012 and gave myself a realistic 3 year time frame to complete it. Well, time was slowly running out (and with the addition of a new family member) I felt like I needed to complete this project before I forget about it and the kids graduated from college. (Plus, Steve agreed to put up some crown molding if when I completed it. So with some added motivation, past the achy arms, carpel tunnel, and calloused fingers, I completed 70% of this project in about 2 weeks.

I am including this post in the blog because most of my readers are either family members, or people who also have young children. To the latter group, maybe one day (if you haven't already) you may want to make one of these as  torture to yourself a gesture of love towards your kids.

When I opened up the package, I was immediately overwhelmed by the instructions. Upon reading it, I slowly got the gist of what I needed to do and just followed the instructions. Here are a few tips that I picked up along the way.

1. The "strands" info is not listed to tell you how many strands of floss are in your kit. Each string of floss is comprised of 6 strands and you need to separate them and follow the directions to figure out how many strands you need for each step of sewing. I pretty much used the whole string for the first few steps and ended up having to go back to the store to buy more floss.

2. Big time saver alert! Break out your pack of 25 assorted needles.

 The kit comes with 2 needles. One tiny one for beading, and one for stitching. I found it VERY time consuming to change thread, knot, repeat for each color. After I whipped out other needles, It was nice to not have to re-thread (which is way more difficult at night, which is when I would work on this project) every 3 minutes and simply grab a different needle with the color needed already threaded on.

3. Bead all the pieces before you applique them on to the stocking. The only thing you need to be careful is when you cut the pieces with beading, you need to make sure you don't cut the thread on the backside.

4. Cut inside the stamped edges using sharp scissors. I was using the sharpest scissors that I own until I thought of using my little rag quilting scissors to cut the felt. OMG! Game changer!

5. Give yourself more than enough time to finish these stockings and I found that the time just flew by when I was working on this with a movie in the background. It was a win-win situation. I got my chick flick time in while working on a craft! Score. 

In the end, I think I would do it again. Well, I actually have to make another one since I now have 2 children, but I think after I figured out the tricks, it has become less of a chore and more fun. I'm actually looking forward to picking out a new stocking and working on it for Hannah. If I keep up with the pace that I've been working at for the past couple of weeks, I may have it completed by Christmas! 

BTW, Mom, I made sure to point out to Steve how painstaking this process was while I was making this first stocking. He admitted that he never really knew to appreciate the stocking you made for him. Now he does and so do I. Thank you.