Slice of Jean: That time I turned a pair of pants into Christmas stockings

12.03.2012

That time I turned a pair of pants into Christmas stockings

Once upon a time I had some capris that I really loved.

They were probably from Walmart and on clearance but I was a college student trying to live off $10 worth of groceries a week, so, you know.

The capris weren't very well-made (shocker!) but they were comfy and they had some cute details. After a couple summers of wear the linen had torn in a couple places; still I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. Surely I could use them for a sewing project sometime! Forget that I don't really do sewing projects and didn't even have a sewing machine for four more years....

But this year.
This year I have a sewing machine and I started thinking about making stockings. Ours were all mis-matched, the smallest one is the size of my palm, and I think MG deserves a little better. Plus stockings are easy to make, right?

Then what fabric to choose? Our Christmas decor is all homespun: walnuts and pinecones for ornaments, Shar's blanket for the tree skirt (at Slice's insistence). It has real character.

I looked at a bunch of ideas online and decided that I wanted simple, maybe burlap stockings. Or.... linen!!

I got to work.

(If you want a great tutorial for some simple stockings that I LOVE, go here. I didn't follow it, but that's because I already knew what I wanted. Also because I'm stubborn.)

I cut up those capris until there was nothing recognizable left. I made smaller ones for the kids so I could get more out of the fabric - even made an extra stocking to give myself a few more years before I have to do this again. I used as much of the embroidery, pockets, buttons and already-finished seams as I could. And I ended up doing some stitching by hand to get what I wanted.

I kind of love them.