Practice, practice

We have a local thrift store whose proceeds support a food bank, so I donate items there, and usually check for good deals regularly. On a recent visit, I bought a Christmas kit for 25¢, not expecting it to be much, and was quite pleasantly surprised to find it a complete kit for making two felt applique Christmas stockings. The kit is from "Goodies from Grandma" in Ames, Iowa. I couldn't find a website for them, otherwise I'd have it linked.

The photo isn't quite as wonderful as I'd hoped, but you get the idea of what they look like completed. The only embroidery work was a blanket stitch around all of the appliques, as well as to bind the stocking parts together. Oh, I lied. I also used French knots for the eyes, after my eyes couldn't find the holes in the black beads provided. Grrrrrrrr.

Anywayyyyyy, after completing the stitches on the appliques, since I plan on filling these for Christmas, it seemed prudent to do a machine blanket stitch to sew the stocking parts together, first, and then just add the blanket stitch around the edges for decorative purposes. The embroidery around the edges of the stocking covered the machine stitching perfectly.

I haven't done embroidery in a long time, and used these to get re-accustomed to the process, in advance of TAST starting this January. Based on how difficult I kept finding it to keep the blanket stitches the same width and tension, and how badly I slaughtered the corners of the cuffs, I need the practice!