The PartyToo.com Elf way to make a Christmas Stocking

SantasElves.co.uk Guide on How to Make a Christmas Stocking (no experience needed!)

We make a lot of the Christmas stockings here at SantasElves.co.uk  As you can see from my last post, they are often padded, embroidered and look very complicated and as a novice it is a bit daunting.  So I asked our chief Elf seamstress to explain how I can make my own Christmas stocking.

They make great gifts, especially when they are full up with presents.  So last night I gave it a go. (My furry friend lent a paw too – his favourite was the one with the bells 🙂

Things you’ll need

SantasElves.co.uk stocking pattern, click for full image

* Thick felt fabric – if you are going to make a cuff as well you will need another piece in a constrasting colour

* Pen to draw around pattern

* Scissors and if you have them, Pinking Shears

* Pins

* Thread and Needles

* Stuff to decorate the stocking – sequins, braid, brooches, buttons, beads – anything goes!

* Optional, a cat to help with overseeing the whole process!

I made two different varieties to suit all abilities and once they are decorated, both variations look great.

Basic Version

A Cuffless Christmas stocking

For the basic version, you don’t turn the stocking out or create a cuff and instead pink (if you have pinking shears, don’t worry if you don’t have them) around the edges to create a decorative look.  You can even use a different coloured thread making a feature of the sewing.

Stocking with a Cuff

The more complicated version has a cuff around the top, it is more fiddly than hard, but once you picture how the cuff is affixed, it quite simple.

1. Print Out the Pattern

Print out the pattern (a link to it is above).  It is very basic and you can easily tweak it by blowing it up, creating a curly or a pointy toe, making a raised arch in the foot or creating a curve in the calf.  It can also be made longer or shorter too.  All you need to bear in mind is the seam allowance.

2. Draw Around the Pattern

Draw around the pattern x2

First of all, draw around the template twice.  It is best to use a thick felt fabric as you don’t have to worry about it fraying and it is much more sturdy when you are stuffing it full of gifts!

3.Cut Out Both Stockings, Pin Together and Sew

Pin the pieces together

Pin both pieces of fabric together, making sure that both sides are matched together.  Sew around the edge leaving a seam allowance of about 2cm.  You can either do this by hand, using a running stitch or on a sewing machine.

4. Trim Around the Stocking – Now You Have a Basic Stocking

Sew around the edge and Snip if you are going to turn it inside out

Hooray!  You have now made the basic stocking and if you don’t want to add a cuff, just trim around the edges with some pinking shears, (or if you don’t have them, just tidy up the edges with normal scissors) and then decorate.  If you want to add a cuff, make little snips into the seam a few mm from the stitching.  This is so you don’t get puckering when you turn it inside out.

5. Making a Stocking with a Cuff

Leave the stocking inside out and sew the cuff around the edge

To make the cuff, use another piece of felt in a contrasting colour.  Measure around the top of the stocking and add an extra 5cm for seam allowance.  With the stocking still inside out and starting at the longest edge, take the cuff and pin it around the top of the stocking, leaving a little end of 2.5cm as seam allowance.  Sew along the edge joining the two ends of the cuff together.  Turn it inside out and there you have your cuff!

6. The Fun Bit – Decorating the Stocking

Now is the fun part! You can decorate the stocking using anything you have to hand.  I have added sequins and faux gemstones to the stockings.  You can also use the gifts to decorate the stocking, such as adding a brooch or a bracelet or necklace.

Here is a long version of the stocking with a white cuff.  I glued on three jingle bells along the top, then laced up the side making it look like a tie-up boot, along with some felt holly leaves and berries!

Don’t forget to add a loop of ribbon to the top if you want to hang it from the tree/fireplace/chair!

If you have any problems, let me know and I’ll try and do my best to answer.  Why not show us the stockings you have made on our Pinterest page here http://pinterest.com/santaspartyelf/

What’s in the box?!?

Have you ever wondered what one of our Christmas stockings would look like when it arrives? Well, here you go!

Check out the gold tissue paper!  We wrap up your stocking as if we are sending it out to a member of our own family – and sending a little Christmas magic too.  You also get a little treat with your paperwork too.

If you look closely at the cuff of the stocking you can see the embroidery on it.  We actually make these stockings out of thick felt with an embroidered cuff featuring stars, holly and scrolls.  They are so pretty and we are really pleased with them.  Keep an eye out for some more pictures and even a film.

Are you looking for a solution to your gift giving woes?  Check out www.SantasElves.co.uk  We have over 169 stockings with prices ranging from £5 to £100 – there are gifts for babies to grown ups and even your cats and dogs as well as themed stockings for knitters, gardeners and cooks; not to mention out Best of British food range featuring British made food (the elves had so much fun doing the taste testing!)

Exclusive peek at our Elf made Christmas stockings!

This year we have decided that any stocking over £50 in our 2012 range will be handmade by us and here is an exclusive peek of one from the £75 Men’s Contemporary range.  The main reason for this change is that we couldn’t find a stocking that would fit all of the gifts that we wanted to include.  So rather use a small stocking with smaller items, we designed our own.

The stocking body itself is made out of 100% cotton.  The stocking shown has a pattern of penguins and Christmas trees, but there are lots of other designs available.  There is a jester style cuff complete with a cluster of bells at the corner which can be taken off and hung on the Christmas tree.

We make the stockings here in house (literally) by the Head Elf, so we have total control over the quality.  The stockings are padded which adds to a sense of luxury and will last for many years to come.

There’s more!!  We are able to personalise the stockings for an additional £10, with our fancy new machine we can cut our names and iron them onto the stocking.

These will be on the site by the beginning of September, have a great weekend.

Love, Holly x

Exclusive peek at our Elf made Christmas stockings!

This year we have decided that any stocking over £50 in our 2012 range will be handmade by us and here is an exclusive peek of one from the £75 Men’s Contemporary range.  The main reason for this change is that we couldn’t find a stocking that would fit all of the gifts that we wanted to include.  So rather use a small stocking with smaller items, we designed our own.

The stocking body itself is made out of 100% cotton.  The stocking shown has a pattern of penguins and Christmas trees, but there are lots of other designs available.  There is a jester style cuff complete with a cluster of bells at the corner which can be taken off and hung on the Christmas tree.

We make the stockings here in house (literally) by the Head Elf, so we have total control over the quality.  The stockings are padded which adds to a sense of luxury and will last for many years to come.

There’s more!!  We are able to personalise the stockings for an additional £10, with our fancy new machine we can cut our names and iron them onto the stocking.

These will be on the site by the beginning of September, have a great weekend.

Love, Holly x

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

While it is sunny outside, here the Santa’s Elves are busy putting together and photographing the 2012 range of new pre-filled stockings.  With over 150 of them, there’s lots to do, but it is OK because the elves have been keeping up their strength by testing all of the new sweets, especially working their way through the gobstoppers.  There is a new one the size of a tennis ball!

We decided to put the set the stockings up, just like we do at Christmas, complete with Christmas tree and sparkly lights.  Then we had another helper turn up, Mr L decided that he wanted to take up his usual position right in front of the fire and have a nap (even though it wasn’t on and was one of the hottest days of the year!)

Perfect! Watching all the Christmas preparations must have beene exhausting for him!

The web elves are busy putting together the new website featuring new sections for all the different stockings, we also have some special elves who are helping us too, so the current site is all higgeldy piggeldy.  Soon everything will be up and our new surprise will be revealed, including a special competition.

Love, Holly x

Ding a ling a ling!

The elves decided to nab all of the bells from the reindeers and used them to ring in the Olympics.  What a noise!  It was great fun and the elves are never one to shy away from making a racket, so we made sure that everyone around us knew that today was the day that we’d ring All the Bells.  Now we have to put all of the bells back before anyone notices – aren’t they bright and colourful?  We might pop some on the stockings this year!

The Wonderful Jubilee

The elves have been taking a break from putting together the stockings for 2012 and have been having a wonderful time during the Jubilee celebrations.  We are all very proud to be British, even the cats have been getting into the spirit!

We hope that everyone else is having a great time 🙂

Val getting into the Jubilee spirit!

Here come the elves!

Did you know that Santa’s Elves take a break from the North Pole and travel down to Hampshire? After the excitement of Christmas Eve and once we’ve had a nap and tidied up, it feel a little deflated so we come down here to lend our Christmas stocking expertise to Party Too. In fact, Santa’s Elves, party too!

This year there have been some adjustments, I’m Holly and you’ll probably hear a lot from me as I’ll be blogging, twittering and facebooking all of the news, but that’s not all!  We needed new stockings, so after looking everywhere we found some brilliant stockings that are in my favourite colour, red!  They are decorated with reindeer, snowmen and of course Father Christmas as well as lots of snowflakes. We have also added some of our own elf hats into the mix, so as well as filled Santa hats, there are filled elf hats too!

Aren’t they fun!  Of course there are elf hats for different ages, then there are Santa hats (don’t tell him!) for the older kids and then there are bags for the grown ups, which are also decorated with reindeer, snowmen and Santa applique.  Each one is £15 and will appear on the website in the beginning of September.

That’s all for now!

Love

Holly x

It’s a Pin Up with Pinterest

Have you seen Pinterest?  All the elves are very excited with this amazing site where you can add photos from the internet to a ‘board’, it can be craft ideas, party ideas, quotes, lol cats – you name it – you can pin it.  Even better, every time you log in, the front page has pictures that are tailored for you.  There is something for everyone and every elf!

It can point you to blogs with ideas for parties – like Party Frosting with her great ideas for dinosaur parties.  Check out this cake!

Isn’t he great and perfect for a dinosaur party!  You can make up a cake in a pyrex bowl, cut in half and add the filling, then cover it with icing.   Simply add feet, tail and head made out of icing and then decorate with coloured spots and give him eyes.  The smaller cupcakes are regular chocolate cakes with a butter icing topping and with a candy covered egg.

Easy!

There are also pages with hints and tips that leave you thinking ‘why on earth didn’t I think of that!’ such as this idea from Real Simple .  When serving ice cream for a party, scoop it out into cup cake cases beforehand to avoid any sticky messes

If you are interested in joining, we can provide you with a log in code, just leave a comment with your details and we’ll email you.

In the mean time check out our pins here

http://pinterest.com/santaspartyelf/

Craft Bags

The PartyToo.com elves have come back from the craft trade fair with lots of new ideas, to start things off we would like to introduce our £1 craft bags which can be found here.  If you are planning a dinosaur, butterfly, insect or princess themed parties then these will be perfect for you.  As always, you can decide on the colour of each bag and whether you would like to have it left open or sealed.  We will also supply you with stickers to seal the bags and again you can choose what message you would like printed on them.  A simple and affordable way to plan your child’s birthday party!

 Why not give the children the bags during the party?  Sit them down with some glue, sequins and card shapes to decorate their own crowns in this bag.  It is a perfect ‘quiet’ activity that will help to calm down the party, or why not use them as an activity at the start of the party while waiting for the children to arrive.

In each bag, there is a set of foam shapes that can be used on the crown, or they could be used to decorate the other card shapes in the bag, including the frog, teddy and butterfly.

Don’t forget that there is also a plain bookmark all ready to be decorated – this can also be done as an activity before the party starts or as a quiet slow down before or after the food has been served.

 There are also a selection of animal themed craft bags, including dinosaur, butterfly and frog bags.  These all contain three shapes in a range of different card colours and textures as well as a stencil to match the animal.  There is also a mask to decorate – simply tie some elastic or a ribbon through the holes in the mask to secure it, as well as a book mark too.  As with all of the bags there are some foam shapes to help start the decorating process!

All you need is some glue, crayons or pencils, sticky shapes or sequins and your imagination!

www.partytoo.com