Here are a couple of the closeups I promised in my “Family Stockings 2008” post. These are my stocking and my mother’s. Mine was made out of scrap bag materials: the body from choir robe leftovers, the wacky print velveteen cuff from a 70’s decorator pillow cover, and the lining from a piece of “sheer” (ish) curtaining. I used a family brooch as the topper for my homemade tassel, made from a variety of textured yarns, and looped  a couple of single-crocheted “chains” of gold yarn from it to a pressed-copper button I shook out of the Random Button Box. Then I tasselated the gold yarn.

Mother’s was a little more interesting. I used an old silk jacquard evening suit jacket of my grandmother’s, which was, in the nature of the jacquard weave, a reverse of itself on each side. On the front, the roses are turquoise on gold, and on the back, the roses are gold on turquoise. So I made the cuff, heel and toe of one side, and the body of the stocking from the other side. I think it made a lovely, subtle difference.

I used the gold silk lining from the jacket for the lining of the stocking, and I had some gold colored ribbon that was a close match, which I used to make the hanger and roll the central ribbon roses of the large rosette, which I crested with gathered body-side fabric. The cuff was circled with self-ribbons of body-side fabric and lining fabric. The lining fabric has a small fringe made by pulling individual threads across the grain, better seen in this photo:

I sewed the bottom of the ribbon/top of the fringe down with some glittery aqua embroidery thread to stop the raveling.

The blue tassel was made the same way, by unraveling and pulling all the gold threads from a piece of the jacquard fabric and rolling the top margin that was left. That created a perfectly color-matched (if somewhat delicate and flyaway) silk tassel. The gold tassel was made the regular way with gold thread tediously wrapped over a card. The top was decorated with “crystal” resin beads. The same gold thread was used in the decorative stitching over the ribbons on the cuff.

I would like to do another few stockings using this reversible jacquard technique (so subtle and beautiful!) and the self-fringing, too, although it’s wearying to do. So that’s not going to be something for the next couple months.

I’m going to post again soon on this year’s creative plans, and as you will see, it’s going to be a long list!