Back in October the team at Laura Ashley invited me to a Handmade Christmas event at Homemade London, a salon in Marylebone where you can try your hand at all sorts of crafty projects. I digress but I reckon a workshop there would make a fun hen do for a crafty bride. Anyway, on the evening in question there were tutorials on making Christmas cards, crafting a headpiece and decorating Christmas stockings. Not one to craft under pressure, or very much at all if I’m honest, I watched everyone else do their crafty thing, wishing I was more skilled with a needle and thread or a scalpel.

A couple of weeks later the Laura Ashley team got in touch to challenge me to put my own creative stamp on one of their stockings. Eek! I decided to give my stocking a simple rustic Christmas look, due in part to my limited crafting skills and the fact that when it comes to embellishment I’m a strong believer in the less is more approach, for example when it comes to personal embellishment I totally subscribe to Coco Chanel’s advice to look in the mirror and take one accessory off before leaving the house. Here’s what I did… [ezcol_1third id=”” class=”” style=””]

{You will need}
  • Stocking
  • Fabric
  • Ric rac or ribbon
  • Needle and thread, in either matching or contrasting colours
  • Paper, pencil and scissors to make templates

    • [/ezcol_1third]

    [ezcol_2third_end id=”” class=”” style=””]

    Tutorial

    1. Make a template of the shape or shapes you’d like to add to your stocking. I cheated and bought the hessian stars from John Lewis and used them as a template to cut stars from the Laura Ashley fabric.
    2. Cut out your shapes.
    3. Pin the fabric shapes in place and then sew in place with either matching or contrasting thread, using a running stitch or blanket stitch.
    4. Pin the ric rac or ribbon in place and then sew in place using a running stitch.
    5. Hang above the fireplace and wait for Father Christmas to fill with gifts (!)

    [/ezcol_2third_end]

    If you’ve got the time and the skills, you could go one step further and make your own Christmas stocking. And of course if you’re in the more-is-more camp when it comes to embellishments you could go further, such as adding sequins in the centre of every star, Christmas is after all a time of excess… Have you completed or are you planning any Christmas craft projects? Do share below!