Tutorial: Upcycled-Sweater Stocking with Felt Poinsettia

Last December I saw some very cute cable-knit stockings in a store, and of course, the crafter in me said, “I can make that!” So I did. And now you can make one, too.

I whipped up a couple for the girls last year, and even wrote up the directions for my friend Gi’s Christmas craft-a-thon. Recently I made another stocking with a few modifications, took a few more pictures, and edited the tutorial as an early Christmas present to all you crafty people out there. Here you go!

You will need:

one old cable-knit sweater (Smaller cables work really well for this project. Also, the larger the size of the sweater, the more you’ll have to work with, obviously. Watch out for V-necks; unless they are large, they may not give you enough to work with. )
felt for the lining of the stocking (You’ll need enough for 2 stocking shapes.)
ribbon, ric-rac, or felt for the hanging loop
small pieces of red or white felt for the poinsettia
buttons (or a bit of green felt)
fabric glue

Using another stocking (or a template), place stocking on top of sweater and trace around it, adding a 1/2 inch for the seam allowance. (Note: you don’t need to leave a seam allowance at the top of the stocking [bottom of sweater] as you won’t be sewing that edge). Make sure the bottom edges of the sweater are lined up nicely! Cut out.

Fold a large piece of felt in half and repeat the tracing/cutting of the stocking shape. You should now have 2 sweater stocking-shapes and 2 felt stocking-shapes.

For the hanging loop, I cut off the cuff of the sleeve and cut it open at the seam. Alternately, you could cut out a strip of felt 1 inch by 6 inches (or however long/wide you like), or use a length of ribbon or ric-rac for the hanger.

If you’re using the sleeve cuff, you’ll want to sew a bit of ric-rac or ribbon on top so it doesn’t stretch so much when it’s hanging up.

Now you need to sandwich all your stocking pieces together. Start with a felt stocking piece, then a sweater piece right-side up, then a sweater piece wrong-side up, then the other felt piece. So the two sweater pieces in the middle should be right-sides together.

Pin along the sides and around the toe, leaving the top of the stocking open.

Fold the hanging loop in half (wrong-sides together) and pin it near the top edge (opposite the toe-side).

Now sew the pieces together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance, sewing down one long side, around the toe, and up the other long side (not across the top!), backstitching over the hanging loop to secure it.

Trim the seams (be careful not to cut your stitching!) and turn right side out.

Using the fabric glue, secure the felt lining to the sweater pieces along the top edge.

Obviously you can choose to leave your stocking as is, or embellish it as you wish. If you’d like to make a felt poinsettia, you can follow these instructions or this tutorial. For this one, I used the BHG instructions, but instead of using green felt for the thingies in the center of the flower, I used buttons, securing them with fabric glue.