THE STOCKINGS WERE HUNG BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE....

I was a new mom in 1985 and a bit of an over-achiever type when it came to creating family holiday rituals, so naturally I decided to make hand-sewn Christmas stockings for Hub, our new Baby Boy, and myself.  Hub created a pattern and  I got out my mom's old sewing machine that had been passed along to me and went to town on churning out those three stockings.  In 1987 I added another for Baby Boy #2.

I'm trying to recall if I did much sewing after that.  The sewing machine ended up in the attic and I finally gave it away after years of neglect.

Then along came that first son's fiance and it was time to add another stocking to the growing family of stockings. Exciting!   So several years ago I asked for a portable sewing machine for my birthday (with some vague notion of taking up sewing again).  Making this stocking, however, was not easy since I had no idea how to actually re-create what we did in the mid-80's.  But I just looked at the old ones and was able, with some trial and error, to get another one made.  It has flaws.

I do not believe I've had the machine out of the closet since, so when I recently decided to crank out another stocking for Son Two's fiancé I was looking forward to it, but  soon I found myself staring at the sewing machine with some  trepidation.  I had to get the instructions out to figure out how to thread it.  Then I had to get my bifocals on, then the magnifying glass (!) to get the thread through the needle.  Some things change over the years.  Hmpf.

I had a heck of a time figuring out the pattern this time too.  I am not good at precision projects nor with spatial relationships.  Measuring and cutting fabric and figuring out how it all goes together is a bit of a challenge.  If you show me a diagram of a box flattened out and I'm supposed to pick the next diagram of the box assembled, I have no idea...none.  My brain doesn't work like that. This is why standardized testing and I never got along and why I have to physically move my living room furniture around to see how it will look; cannot visualize the change without actually making the change.

Anyway, I'm embarrassed to tell you how many mistakes I made and how many stitches I had to rip out and do over.  At one point I ended up with something that looked like a hat rather than a stocking.  Not sure how that happened.

As I ripped out yet another seam, I recalled that Son Two told me his future mother-in-law does intricate cross-stitch stockings for everyone in her extended family, each of which she works on all year long.  Of course she does.  Some women are good at the womanly arts of 'fancywork', as my grandma called her stellar detailed embroidery.  I would never adventure into that territory.  I just bought some pre-quilted fabric and pretty trim and tried to put it together into something resembling a Christmas stocking.  Still, what would have taken my crackerjack  seamstress mother about 45 minutes to make took me over 2 hours.  But I persevered.

I decided these things are only out of the box for about two weeks once a year and if anyone wants to inspect my work, they miss the point.  These goofy stockings are all about a tradition that started with a little baby joining our family 33 years ago and everyone who's come along since gets to be officially welcomed with their own version of the originals, except my granddaughters who preferred to choose their own stockings with snowmen on them.  Maybe one day they will request a "grown up" stocking, but they'd better hurry, because I may not remember anything about making the damn things at some point.

Well, the stocking are all hung now and from afar they look pretty nice.  My one regret is that our original pattern may be way too big!  The challenge each year is to fill them up.  I go for bulky stocking stuffers.  Fortunately, all the grown-ups like wine.

At least, that's the view from here...©