Are you not sure what to do with your ugly sweater from Aunt Mildred? Do you have a closet full of tired and old sweaters from year’s past? I have a solution for you! Make them into an upcycled DIY sweater stocking.
A full-length sweater jacket was lucky enough to be transformed into the striped stockings in the picture above. It had a hole and a stain on it, and it was ready for the Goodwill pile. This sweater was long enough to make a full stocking, and then two cuffs on the yellow ochre stockings. I even had enough room to be selective about the placement of stripes. Then my daughter was gluing the buttons on, and she accidentally lined them up crooked. I glued the 4th button on and made it look intentional.
LEFT PICTURE: This stocking was made from a large sweater that reaches to your mid thigh, and has a huge rolled neck that chaffed my neck too many times. It was never one I chose to wear from the closet because of that. After 3 years of taking up room in my closet, it was time to reinvent it. Into a DIY sweater stocking, of course.
MIDDLE PICTURE: on the left picture, you will notice there is a seam in the toe of the stocking. The middle image is similar to the placement of what it looked like before I cut the gray stocking. Then I flipped my pattern over and cut another one.
RIGHT PICTURE: I mentioned this gray sweater had a colossal roll neck that was bothersome to wear. I turned it into the cuff of this stocking.
This stocking’s fabric came from my post on my Halloween Witch Costume tutorial you can see here. There is no reason not to get double use out of such an amazingly ruffled fabric. The cuff from this stocking came from the sweater stocking next to it.
See that skirt? Uh, yeah, hello, stocking!
The thrift store supplied the body and fur cuff of this stocking. A Banana Republic sweater with zipper details became the toe detail. The fur I found while shopping for a Halloween costume.
That year I was an elf from The Lord of the Rings, while my husband was Gandalf the Gray. We like to coordinate costumes, and my whole family of 30+ come to visit and trick or treat. In past years we have been Marshal Dillion + Miss Kitty, Ghost Buster + Ghost, Witch + Witch’s Haggard Minion. I know we go together like peanut butter and jelly.
But since we are talking Christmas here, while shopping for said Lord Of The Rings costume, I happened upon this old fur wrap. It made perfect accents to my costume that year. Since I can’t let ideal fabric go to waste, it had to use this gorgeous brown fur again on a Christmas stocking.
This stocking has a red fabric liner that peers through the mesh of the sweater. The collar became the cuff.
The fun part is decorating each one stocking. Bells, ribbon, felt holly, buttons were all added to my stockings. I even made snowflakes for each one.
Snowflake:
- I first cut a pattern out of paper.
- Then I transferred that to a piece of poster board so it would be stronger.
- Along the folded edge of fabric I cut a semi circle.
- Then trimmed each arm in sections.
- I sewed around the major part of the arm. Don’t worry about sewing down each little hole of the snowflake.
So line up to tell Santa what you want in your stocking. Assembled from an old and stained Coldwater Creek summer top, it made a perfect stocking addition.
If you are interested in other posts on the web that you can learn more about DIY sweater stockings, Cami from Tidbits-cami.com offers an excellent step by step how-to-sew post. Check it out here.
Tips:
If your stocking sags when you hang it, press some tissue paper into the inside to help stiffen it up. Or you could cut a piece of interfacing and line the inside when sewing.
Hand sewing the cuff on helps when using a sweater sleeve.
Don’t be afraid to hot glue some of the decorations. It makes the job of multiple stockings MUCH faster to get through.
Ribbons, buttons, felt holly, homemade fabric snowflakes, yarn were options I used for decoration. I even hung an antique key and puff tassels. To see how to make a tassel, see this post.
Some sweater fabrics will start to unravel. Pinning the edges down helps to keep everything stretched in place and minimal unraveling. I sewed MANY different stockings with all kinds of sweaters. I never had one completely unravel until it wasn’t usable. And, hey, if they do, they are only $4.99 at the local Goodwill. Make two more!
I think my favorite stocking is the one where the buttons were accidentally glued on crooked. Sometimes our mistakes make the best treasures. The picture with different stockings lined along the PEACE mantel is pretty awesome too!
That’s true. Sometimes failure can be the best teacher. In this case it taught that accidents can be turned into spontaneity.