Stockings hung by the Fireplace...

I've been putting off making new stockings for the family because, really, there's nothing wrong with the stockings we have. My mom made our stockings, and I love them, but they're very colorful, and well, I've been wanting to go a little more neutral.

Enter the stockings for this year. I googled a pattern for stockings, and ended up using one from McCall's, except I may have blown it up a bit. We need big stockings. So then I just went about customizing the stockings. Each stocking is made out of muslin and trimmed in white and off white trims, buttons, and ribbons. Some of the stockings have some sparkle and shine, but they all coordinate, and I LOVE THEM!!!!

So the boys' stockings are pretty simple and straight forward. Harrison's reminds me of a gingerbread house and Dev's is just fun. Kind of like patchwork, but out of buttons. Steve's stocking was a request that he had. He wanted something reminiscent of an 80's athletic sock, hence the three stripes. My stocking is pieced together from all sorts of laces and bead trims. My aunt's wedding dress lace is also on the toe of my stocking. Evan's stocking is a take on Santa's outfit, if it were done all in whites.

I didn't want to just put our names on the stockings. The original plan was to, but that idea didn't pan out so then I had to come up with Plan B. Plan B are the wooden rectangles with our names drawn on them. Sharpies were my friends  with this part of the project. I printed out our names in the font I wanted and then I traced the names onto the tags by placing the paper over the tags and tracing the names with a pen and pressing hard. That left an indent in the wood that I could then trace and embellish with the sharpies. Nice and simple, and perfect for my stockings!

I always planned to use the original stockings in my decor this year, and since I have so many trees and different areas in the house it was really not a huge leap to put them where I did.

They're going up the banister! I always have problems decorating the banister and when I finally decided to make the new stockings, I knew what was going to go on my banister, and luckily the 'Big' tree goes in the living room, which is also the hodge podge of family ornament trees so having the original stockings highlighted with that tree makes the most sense. I topped off the banister with a new bow and some pine cones dangling from the newel post.

I love how the stockings each work in their rooms! I am getting so excited to show off everything!

Hope you guys enjoyed today!