stocking details

i've had lots of questions about the stockings and realized i learned a lot from making them so here are my tips...

• try to use the most amount of wool you can find in sweaters. i used one 100% cotton sweater when i was figuring out how i wanted the stockings to look and it was not good. just stay away from cotton- trust me. the higher content wool stockings worked the best for cutting and sewing.
• to felt my sweaters, i washed them in hot, then dried in the dryer. it shrinks the sweaters a lot, so buy big sizes if you can. if they get felted enough for your taste in the washer you can hang them to dry. the felting from the dryer is a lot more dramatic.
• on my second test stocking i realized it would be easier to cut the stocking upside-down on the sweater and use the bottom hem for the opening of the stocking. this was my best idea with these stockings because sewing a hem around the opening did not work. there was one sweater that cutting upside-down didn't work with because of the design on the sweater- so that's also how i settled on all stripes.
• i cut off an inch at the wrist of the sweater to make the hooks. with most sweaters it was the perfect size.
• Macy's stocking was the only one that i embellished (it was christmas eve!) maybe i will get to the others later. i just made a flower out of cotton(more on that later) and used a piece from a green sweater to make the leaf.
• my sister will love this: when all else failed, i used hot glue. (remember i was in a hurry) so the hooks are hot glued on as well as the flower.
• the trees were an afterthought- i just started with one edge and glued it to a styrafoam cone then wrapped it and cut as i glued the other side- so they have a seam in the back.