One of my favourite-ever Christmas projects, my house advent calendar, lives on our mantlepiece over the Christmas period, but a fireplace is not complete without a row of stockings waiting for Father Christmas to arrive down the chimney. Our living room is a soft grey and so I wanted some Christmas stockings that would work well with the gentle colours that we have in the space, and found a very muted, cool green cotton velvet online.

I designed the shape of the stockings to make best use of the length of fabric that I bought, to cut down on wastage and to fit onto the extra long mat of the Cricut maker that I upgraded to recently after having my previous machine for close to a decade.

This really made a huge difference to the sewing projects that I made over the Christmas period as I struggle in the cutting out phase of a project as I get vertigo when I look directly down. Being able to hand this step off to a little machine made this so much easier for me.

Maximising the usage of the narrow width 1m of velvet that I bought resulted in a stocking shape with many benefits, such as a nice wide ‘leg’ section and rounded ‘foot’ shape. Along with the smooth cotton lining this means that any awkward shaped gifts pass in and out of the stocking with ease.

I added a split monogram to each of the stockings, because I have been so very much enjoying making our home, and our holiday experience within it, personal to us. A lot of places will tell you not to use iron-on vinyl cuts with velvet, and actually not to iron velvet at all, but as long as you keep a few pointers in mind it should be fine, especially for projects that aren’t going to be worn and laundered extensively.

I used a 100% cotton velvet, and made sure that the nap was running smooth before placing the vinyl. When applying the vinyl, ensure that you do not move the iron or press, and take all the steps you usually would for best vinyl adhesion (pre-warm the area, finish off by pressing on the back, again smoothing the nap).

The vinyl was applied to the cut pieces of the stocking, which were then sewn and finished off with a fuzzy cuff, and an integrated hanging loop, ready for Father Christmas to visit later in the month.