Handmade Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to the Handmade Holiday Blog Hop.  If you didn’t get here from Shanon’s Blog, pop over to Amanda’s to get started.

Today’s adventure is creating fun stuff from your stash for the Holidays!  My project was actually something that I had to do last minute stocking for my Brother-In-Law.  Now, I forget why exactly my sister (who is an AMAZING seamstress, in fact… she has a degree in Fashion and a degree in Costume Design) didn’t have one for him (it wasn’t their 1st Christmas together… by about 7 years!) but she didn’t.  So it was getting on towards Christmas Day, and they had a new baby and it was just chaos.  So I looked around to try and come up with a quick and easy, but still cute, stocking for him.  I saw her stash of ribbon and thought, Pin Weaving!  Easy peasy!

Pin weaving is where you weave strips of fabric (or ribbon or paper….) in a basket weave.  Why is it called pin weaving?  Because you use a LOT of pins to secure the strips whilst you create your decor.  You need two pins/ribbon, in fact.  One at each end.

I started with a cutout of the stocking.  I free handed the shape, but you can find a load of free patterns online.  I chose felt because it’s easy to work with, but any fabric will do.  Felt doesn’t pull out of shape, doesn’t fray, doesn’t cause headaches!  It’s great for crafting.

Felt base for stockings.

I sewed my stockings, but if you are not comfortable with the sewing machine, you can use iron-on glue like Pellon or Thermoweb.  I hate the stuff, but it does make things easier.  Don’t forget, if you’re going to use it, you have to do so AT THIS POINT.  And, you absolutely need to use an ironing cloth to keep your iron from getting glue on it.

Once you’ve got your shape, you start lining up your ribbons.  This can take a LONG time, because you have to make sure they don’t shift.  Even with pins, it’s annoying.  But, it’s seriously worth it in the end.  Here are some in progress shots.

Horisontal Ribbons

Adding the virtical ribbons weaving them through the horizontal ones.

Once you've finished, you need to push and prod the ribbons til they're straight and you're happy with them.

Once you’re happy with the look of your ribbon weaving, you’ll need to be sure that you’ve securely pinned each ribbon to the felt backing.  Once you’ve done that, you have two options.  If you’re not comfortable with sewing, you can use the iron on fabric glue we talked about up above.  If you are comfortable with a sewing machine, you can easily sew the ribbons to the felt.  Here’s what mine look like from the back (which is the direction you have to sew from.)

Ribbon stitched to the backing.

Once you’ve stitched the ribbon (or ironed it on), be sure to trim the excess.

Ribbons trimmed.

If you’re going to add a cuff, do so at this point.  I’m using a wide felt ribbon, but you could use a block of felt or a wide ribbon.

Add the cuff.

And finally, sew the two halves together.  Once you’ve finished, stitching you’ll need to trim the edges of the stitching.  If you’re using felt, you can trim it a lot closer than if you’re using a fabric that will fray.  If you use something that frays, you’ll need to bind the edge after you trim it.

Here are my two finished stockings!

Ta da!

Now, as usual, I’ve got an RAK on offer!  I’m giving away one of these lovely stockings.  If you’d like to win, here are your options:

1. Leave a comment on this post by 11.59 pm on 3 December.
2. Post a link from your blog to mine, leaving me a comment telling me.
3. Become a follower of my blog, leaving me a note telling me.

I’ll draw a winner on 4 December, so don’t forget to check back here to find out who the winner is.

Now… on to the next blog!  The lovely Cassie has some fun stuff in store!

In case you get lost, here’s the whole list of blogs.

1. Aman*DUH*
2. Becky
3. Jennifer D
4. Shanon
5. Adele (That’s Me!)
6. Cassie (This is next!)
7. Ashley
8. Laura M
9. Heather
10. Melissa
11. Amanda J
12. Mandi
13. Briana
14. Heidi 
15. Stacia