You guys I am super excited about this. I finally completed the stocking I was making for my niece!

Let me tell you again the reason I was making this. Everyone on my husband’s side of the family has a different one of these beautiful stockings (by Bucilla) handmade by his grandmother who the kids called Gigi. When we married into the family she even made one for us. This year we were all so sad when Gigi was diagnosed with two advanced forms of cancer and passed away within a few months. I personally really looked up to her and she is the one that gave me her sewing machine and taught me how to use it. She made Meredith many gorgeous knitted blankets, hats, sweaters, and toys. She also had an amazing life story that I never tired of hearing about.

Anyway, my niece Karley was born in March of this year and Gigi wasn’t able to make her a stocking so I volunteered to try! My mother-in-law and sister-in-law helped put a lot of the sequins on the pieces and I know they would have done more but it was kind of hard to split up the work with such a complicated project. I was also excited to figure it out by myself. As for my experience in needlepoint, I am an amateur cross-stitcher and I have only done the simplest of embroidery and felt work before. I was learning new things up until the very end with this, but I enjoyed every bit of it!

Now excuse me as I show you a ton of detail photos because I can’t stop looking at it.

Santa’s hat and face were the first pieces to go on. I’m glad they turned out as well as they did because I really had no idea what I was doing at first!

The train and the jack-in-the-box were probably the most time consuming parts of it.

The hardest part might have been simply embroidering the name on the tag! Since it’s personalized I had to trace it onto tissue paper and then stitch over the paper, tearing it away at the end. It was kind of messy and I am just so happy that I didn’t have to redo the whole thing.

Another detail shot of the stitching:

The whole project was both easier and harder than I expected. I started it back in September because I had no idea how intense it would be, and I’m really glad I did. I don’t have a ton of spare time and this is some really detailed stuff! Every single little piece has to be sequined, embroidered, cut out, stuffed, and attached by hand. So it’s a lot, and I’m really glad I didn’t develop pregnancy carpal tunnel because I don’t know if I could have done it with numb fingers. :) But also, once I mastered a few stitches and became familiar with the material, it was really just matter of doing it!

For fun I hung it up on our fireplace to see it next to the others.

From left to right is David’s, mine, Meredith’s, and Karley’s. You can see how the patterns have become way more complicated in recent years!

It is so satisfying to be finished with this project, but I can say that I am actually already looking forward to making another one for our little boy next year! For now though, I am really excited to be getting back to my true love, cross stitch, and this project that I set for myself at the beginning of the year. :)