Teach an Important Life Skill and Make Keepsake Christmas Decorations
This easy, inexpensive felt Christmas stocking project is the perfect way to teach children important hand sewing skills and make impressive Christmas keepsakes.
This is the project that has motivated all my children to learn to sew. It’s a simple project for beginners, but can be quite elaborate for children that already have sewing skills.
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Why Teach Hand Sewing?
Being able to sew on a button and other minor clothing repairs are important life skills.
In a University of Missouri study, Pamela Norum, a professor in the Department of Textile and Apparel Management, found that a significant gap exists in basic clothing repair skills between Baby Boomers and Millenials. These results are not surprising, considering that public schools are eliminating home economics classes. Norum said, “…We need to evaluate not only how we take care of our clothes, but how we educate younger generations to do so as well.”
This study found that a larger percentage of the Baby Boomer generation had the skills to sew on a button, repair a hem and other general laundry skills. Whereas, more Millenials, who are now in their 20s and 30s, lacked these basic skills.
How Do You Teach Kids to Sew By Hand?
You may be thinking that teaching your kids to sew sounds like a lot of work. It’s actually very easy to teach. I’ve included a video below that you can use to teach the basics. After they’ve watched the video, let your children practice the different stitches on scrap pieces of felt.
Also, make sure to teach needle safety. The age you teach sewing will depend on the maturity of the child, but I generally teach basic sewing skills in 1st or 2nd grade.
As a side note, don’t neglect to teach your boys the basics. They may need to sew on a button or repair a clothing tear one day. Try to play up the fact that they will be using dangerous needles and learning to tie knots. That’s what appealed to my 4th-grade son this year.
Why Use Felt?
This sewing project uses felt for 3 reasons:
- It’s inexpensive. You can get felt at WalMart or craft stores for about 30 cents apiece.
- It makes a sturdy stocking. Felt is so stiff and thick that it holds its shape perfectly for Christmas stockings.
- It’s easy for beginners to work with. The pieces “stick” together, making pinning unnecessary. I just use a few safety pins to attach the pieces for sewing. Also, it’s not necessary to sew seams since felt doesn’t fray.
Step-by-Step Instructions for Felt Christmas Stockings
Supplies List:
- 2 pieces of felt in the same color for the body of the stocking
- decorations – ribbons, bells, felt for cutting shapes, embroidery thread, buttons, etc.
- fabric shears
- large sewing needles
- thread to match the felt and ribbon
- safety pins to hold pieces together while sewing
Instructions:
1.Print this pattern or draw your own. To print my pattern, simply right click on the image, open it in a new tab, and print.
*Beginners may want to start with a smaller stocking that requires less sewing.
2. Cut out 2 stocking pieces and one hanging loop piece out of felt.
3. Plan the design and lay out the various pieces on the stocking to make sure everything fits correctly.
4. Sew everything on the front piece. I use safety pins to hold pieces on while my children sew.
5. Sew the back stocking shape to the front piece.
6. Attach the loop for hanging.
I hope you will love these Christmas stockings as much as we have! My children enjoy making them as gifts. The white stocking pictured above in the instructions isn’t sewn perfectly, but it will be a special gift my 7-year-old has made for her grandmother this Christmas.
These felt stockings are a great way to motivate children to learn to sew by hand and they are a special keepsake that they will pull out year after year to decorate for Christmas.
This is such a great idea! I need to take out our felt and let our little ones try their hand at it. We bought our daughter one of those kits with the pre-punched wholes that she loves so I think she will take to this idea.
Kristen, we started with those beginner sewing kits, too.
I learned hand sewing when I was younger. My 13 old recently learned and it’s kind of awesome that she’s so proud of that skill in this day and age. This project seems like something she would enjoy.
My teen girls made the stockings in the feature photo at the top of this post. I was a little surprised about how hard they worked on them! It’s so great your daughter likes to sew!
Teaching kids the craft and skill of sewing at an early age is important. I love these stockings! Such a cute project. I want my daughter to do this.
Thanks Monica! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!
I wish I had been taught how to sew more, I just kind of wing it now and am terrible. I’ll have to re-learn so I can teach my daughter!
Check out the YouTube video I included. It’s only 5 minutes and covers all the basics in a very simple way. That’s how I learned!
So my children are small and can’t sew yet but I bought them some sewing cards to start practicing. I love this idea and will save it for when they get older.
I love those sewing cards. Sometimes I would just get a piece of cardboard or cardstock and cut out a big shape, like of a Christmas tree or something. Then, just use a hole puncher to punch holes. Give them a long shoelace and you have a free sewing card! Then, they can decorate them too.
This is so adorable. My niece loves anything with crafts. Totally going to try this!
Thanks! I hope she loves it Jenn!
I love these Christmas stockings! I’m going to do this with my younger children this month! Thank you for the idea!
Awesome! It’s so fun. I hope you enjoy it!
sewing is a such a useful skill, this is a great idea!
Thanks Jasmine!
This is too advanced for my daughter, but I love this idea for years down the line when she’s a bit older.
Here I am looking for white stockings all this time and never thought to make them myself. Great Idea!
Yes, we found some white felt with ribbing (the one in the photos) and it’s a little nicer than the regular felt.
We made christmas stockings like this when I was young. I still have it today. Pinning so I remember to do this with my own kids.
That’s so neat that you did this as a child and that you still have them! Actually, my older girls came up with the idea a few years ago on their own but it’s something the kids want to make again each Christmas.
These are so cute! I definitely want to show my boys how to do this. We have a ton of felt and thread so we don’t even need to buy anything. The one with the legos is such a great idea! How do you get the lego’s on? hot glue?
Yes, we used hot glue to get the Legos to stick. My girls have been making these for a few years, but I was surprised that my son was so into making them this year. He’s making a football stocking for my husband with brown felt and white lacing.
This is really cute. I remember when I was a kid, I loved making handmade gifts for the family.
This is so beautiful. I remember when my mom thought me to sew
This is wonderful I definitely plan to teach my kids to sew.
Love this idea! My grandma taught me to sew and it’s always such good quality time!
Love this simple step by step tutorial! My girls love hand-sewing projects so may have to try soon!
These felt stockings are a great way to introduce sewing to kids! My grandmother was a talented seamstress and I wish I had learned more from her when I had the chance. I love this idea to get started.