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:: How To Make A Where The Wild Things Are Christmas Stocking : Free Pattern and Tutorial

November 6, 2009

Here it is! The complete extremely photo-ridden tutorial – so you can make a Max too!

Please note that I took these photos yesterday when I made my first ever Max stocking! If you are a really good crafty person – you’ll probably want to do these steps your own way and make some changes… Cool! Sometimes when you make something for the first time, the process can be a little illogical and imperfect! If you are a beginner – this worked for me and it will work for you too! You can make this! You can!I didn’t really want him to be a stocking shape – because I didn’t want to detract from his legs dangling down. But you might want to change things around and sew him onto a stocking shape. That’s okay too!Important Note :: Please do not make these to sell. Mr Sendak would be scandalized. Just for gifts please! It’s a celebration of the book – not a SELL-A-BRATION! Got it?!

Yay!

Things you need :
Plain Calico (or other neutral fabric) – 6ocm x 80cm
White Felt – 50cm x 50cm
Beige/Skin Tone Felt – 20cm x 20cm
Gingham – 70cm x 20cm
Black embroidery floss (thread!)
Hand sewing needle
Sewing Machine and white thread
Pins
Scissors
Fading Embroidery Marker
Iron

Pattern Links : Print These Out on A4 ::
Click the above link.
Click on the first pattern page.
Click ‘All Sizes’ above the image
Then click ‘Original’ and download to your computer, then print!
To double check your scale on each page – so you know it printed the correct size : Max’s body is around 13cm shoulder to shoulder: Max’s leg is around 16.5cm: and the Hood piece is 8cm from top corner to top corner.

Cut out your pieces according to our pattern ::
Cut ::
one white felt body piece, one beige felt face piece, two white felt arm pieces, four white felt leg pieces, one white felt hood edge piece to sew on top of the face, CUT TWO 20cm X 36cm calico panels for the bag/stocking, one 70cm x 20cm strip of gingham for the strap.

Let’s Get Started!

Embroider the Face :: Using our diagram as a guide, draw the face onto the beige FACE piece with the fading marker. Don’t be scared! You can do it. Practice with a regular pen on regular paper first! Stitch the features onto the face piece using only 2 strands of the embroidery floss. (So you need to separate the six strands of floss down to only two – for a cute sketchy feel!) Add some hair if you like! It’s quick and easy to do and looks cute peeking out from under Max’s hood! I used backstitch!

Embroider the Buttons :: Same deal as above – draw on the button outlines and stitch away! I used backstitch – you use whatever stitch you like!

Finish the Top Edge of the Stocking :: Iron the top edge of each of the two bag/stocking panels down 1cm to form a neat folded edge (as above). Press and stitch this edge down on EACH bag/stocking panels. Now fold the same edge down again – so the folded edge covers the raw edge of the stitched down fabric. Press neatly into place with the iron. (We don’t want to see that raw edge – and it might fray!) Pin into place and stitch once more for a super neat finish.

Sew on the Face :: Position the embroidered FACE piece on the BODY piece – use our photo (above) as a guide or consult the pattern piece. Pop a couple of pins in to Max’s cheeks to secure and stitch into place half a cm from the edge of the FACE piece. Excellent. Trim your threads and remove the pins – or remove the pins and trim your threads!

Sew on the Hood Edge (above) :: Max wears a cute wolf suit with a hood – the HOOD EDGE PIECE is meant to finish the face neatly and add a bit of dimension to our Max. Position the HOOD EDGE PIECE right over the top of the FACE piece – just plonk it on top making sure that it covers the edges of the FACE beneath. Pin into place with a couple of pins. Now stitch half a cm in, all the way around on the inside edge of the HOOD EDGE piece. Then stitch half a cm in, all the way around, on the outside edge of the HOOD EDGE piece. Your HOOD EDGE piece will now be sewn into place by two lines of stitching. See our photo to double check what we mean! Except I did the outside first. Not the end of the world, but better to work from the inside out! So start at the inside edge!

Pin and Sew the Body on to the Front of The Stocking :: Pin the white felt BODY piece into place on the RIGHT SIDE of the FRONT STOCKING PANEL (See above). You need to make sure the bottom of the body piece lines up with the bottom of the FRONT STOCKING PANEL. Pin into place – smoothing it out so there are no lumps and bumps. Sew all around the edge of the pattern piece – just a half cm in from the edge – leaving the top (between Max’s ears) open to form a pocket. See the dashed lines on the BODY pattern piece? That’s where you sew! Take it slowly – we used a zipper foot so we could see what we were doing more easily, but your usual foot is fine. Keep a watch out that you don’t drive off the edge of the BODY piece. Take it slowly. Trim your loose threads as you go.

Note that as both pieces are the same, it doesn’t matter which panel you choose to be the front piece. We will sew the back of the stocking on later.

Make the Arms :: Take an arm piece and fold it so that the straight (not the clawed!) edge meets the line shown on the pattern (like I did above). Pin it into place and then stitch along the wrist – then up the arm – across the top of the arm – and back down the side of the arm to meet the wrist again. See dashed lines on the pattern piece – it shows you where to stitch. Next stitch a line down from the wrist to the tip of each claw. Take some scissors and trim up your claws so they look good and scary. Sometimes as we stitch they become misaligned – no matter – you can fix that up now! Repeat for the other arm! Ace work! You have two finished Max arms!



Make the Legs and Sticking Out Feet (above) :: Take a pair of leg pieces (you have two pairs, right?!) and stitch from the top of the leg down the length of the leg STOPPING at the ankle line – then stitch across the ankle and back up the other side of the leg. Stitch several line from the ankle line down to the tip of each toe claw (see above close up) – pretty much like we did with the arms! Now bend Max’s foot up and fold it back across the ankle stitching line. (See above) Stitch into place close to the folded edge (around half a cm) to create a more three dimensional, sticking out kind of foot! Repeat with the other leg. Yay! If it still looks a bit funky-weird, just get out your scissors and trim it up!

Pin on the Legs :: Pin the legs into place with their straight edges lined up with the bottom edge of the BODY. (Like we did in the photo above) In other words, they need to be pinned with their toe claws reaching up to Max’s chin.

Sew on the Legs :: Now stitch them on with a line of stitching very close to the edge. We’ll re-sew them into the stocking seam later!

Sew on the Arms :: Pin the arms into place (see above). They need to be in position at the BODY shoulders – and they need to be stretching outwards for this bit. Sew two lines of stitching to secure. Trim all your loose threads and remove your pins.

Let’s Divert and Make the Strap (above) :: Take your measured strip of gingham and fold it in half. Press a firm crease down this halfway line. Now unfold it and fold one LONG raw edge into this central crease line. Press into place. Fold the other LONG raw edge into the central crease and press. Phew. Lots of folding and pressing. Finally fold the strap in half, pin and stitch the full length at each folded edge. So two lines of stitching – one at each LONG folded and pressed edge!


Attach the Strap :: Pin the STRAP into place as shown with about 2cm of extra STRAP to spare at each pin, making sure it’s not twisted, and stitch with one line of stitching close to the top of the stocking/bag edge. Now tuck up the excess STRAP (the raw edge) and stitch that into place with another neat line of stitching so we can’t see the raw edge (see image directly above).

NB :: You can shorten the strap so that it’s a more traditional ‘hanger’ length if you like – in that case just attach it to the mid-point of the BACK panel in a little ‘v’ shape and stitch to secure. You can also sew the strap on at the VERY END and straddle it across the side seams so it’s more centred – but I didn’t do it that way!

More Pins! :: Now we need to pin the arms inwards for safe keeping – away from the soon-to-be-stitched side seams of the stocking. Fold Max’s HANDS and ARMS inward as though he’s hugging himself. Make sure his HANDS/CLAWS are tucked well away from the raw edges of the FRONT STOCKING PANEL. Otherwise you might unwittingly stitch them into the seams in a minute! Oh no! Don’t! Make sure the strap is well away too! And note that his legs are folded up too. V important.

Sew The Two Bag Panels Together :: With the FRONT PANEL Max side up (facing you,) take the other BACK PANEL of the BAG/STOCKING and put it RIGHT SIDE FACING IN on top of Max. So the WRONG SIDE of the BACK PANEL is now facing you. And Max is hiding sandwiched and pinned neatly inside. Take a tiny peek to make sure his arms are pinned away from the edges. Then sew all the way from the top edge of the bag, down to the bottom, along the bottom (it’s a bit bumpy there because you are sewing the legs in too!) and then back up the other side. (Leave the top open!). You should sew around 1cm in from the edges.

Trim off all your loose threads. If you have pinking shears (zigzag ones!) – the trim the edges with those to neaten. Now you need to turn it the right way out! All done!

I hope you work it out! Make sure to upload an image to our Flickr pool if you DO make one! Or even make a variation on this one and show that off! Imagine lots of WILD THINGS hanging around on Christmas morning!! Awesome

xx Pip

 

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