teaching sewing confidence, tip by tip

Friday 6 December 2013

Are You Hanging Up A Stocking On Your Wall?

 
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall
Are you hoping that the snow will start to fall
Do you ride on down the hillside
On a buggy you have made
When you land upon your head
And you've been 'Slade'

Suddenly it's 1973, I'm 10 and loving this great new Christmas song by the band Slade (click here if you'd like to hear it!).
 I'm still loving it 40 years later and I'm going to be bold and suggest that some of the best Christmas songs ever came out of the UK back in the 70s and 80s, far too many to list here but an appropriate opening to a post about my very first Christmas Stocking.

At work here in Manhattan, we Manhattan LQS Staffers are having a Christmas Stocking competition.  I haven't made a stocking before but knew immediately it had to be something incredibly appropriate to me, the one British member of the team.

I adapted an Elf Stocking pattern available here on Sew4Home, adding batting and a few other changes and used a Timeless Treasures panel of the Union flag (needs must as, unfortunately, this panel is designed incorrectly with all the white sections the same width - this is a pet hate of mine when I see quilted/crafty variations of my country's flag across the internet and also when I see the white sections created to different widths but upside down!!!).


Do you think any of the customers will guess it's mine?


My favourite Christmas song is actually Fairytale of New York (1987) by The Pogues and featuring Kirsty MacColl, if you haven't heard it you've missed a treat so here's a video link and also a link to the lyrics which might come in handy for those struggling to understand the Irish accent!


Have you hung your stocking yet and what's your all-time favourite Christmas song?


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44 comments:

  1. Love it! My (currently obsessed with Doctor Who) kiddos would want one just like it if they saw this. As for favorite xmas songs, I can't pick just one...

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  2. I'm with you on the best Christmas songs being from the 70s and 80s and I'm with you on your favourite too, I LOVE that song (don't need the lyrics, but thanks!). You know what, I'd never noticed the thing about the white bits being different widths. The rug I'm hooking has them all nice and uniform... whoops! I think I've just been too busy being hung up on it being called by it's correct name (my heart soared when I saw that!!)

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  3. Great post Chrissie - I agree on all points especially Fairytale of New York! Oh and I love the stocking too - hope you win. xx

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  4. This calls for a Santa hat in similar colors :)

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  5. Your stocking is so fun and a perfect way to express yourself! No way to pick just one favorite Christmas song... but I'm wistful for The Roches' We Three Kings Christmas album (1990)... which we played over and over for years!

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  6. Well, I learned something about the British flag and it prompted me to google it in order to observe the correct widths. Always learning! ;)

    The pom-poms are just the perfect cherry on top of this. So cute!

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  7. So. Very. Cute!! My daughter has just spent 2 years in London and is coming home Dec 30 - I really should do something like this for her. Favourite christmas song . . .mmm . . . Feliz Navidad is a fun one and I also like Please Come Home for Christmas by The Eagles.
    Hope you do well with your competition!!

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  8. Slade is my favourite and 1973 my last year of primary school, we're the same age! We danced at the Christmas disco to this, it brought the house down (school hall). Love your stocking and I agree with Rachel, you need the hat to match :)

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    1. 1973 was such a great year for Christmas songs wasn't it? Wizzard's Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday was my favourite that year and probably right through until The Pogues' song came along. I love the idea of a hat, maybe that should be next year's CQ Xmas Challenge?!

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  9. Great stocking, Chrissie! Got to be a bit of Bing ... gets me every time :)

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    1. Absolutely, there's the obvious White Christmas, which I love, but my favourite Bing is The Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth with David Bowie :D

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  10. Definitely a winner Chrissie! You can't beat a bit of Wizzard, I wish it could be Christmas everyday to get you in the festive mood :)

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    1. My favourite song too from 73 until The Pogues came along - still love it :D

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  11. I can hardly stand how cute that stocking is! It's fantastic!

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  12. Your stocking is so very cute...I had no idea that the panel was wrong, so glad that you pointed that out...

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  13. It's really unusual, in an awesome way! Love the little pom poms!

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  14. I love this stocking! How much fun is that cuff with the pom-poms?

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  15. I totally agree about the Christmas songs and we're the same age you know! Love your stocking especially the curly toe! Xx

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  16. Love your darling stocking! So fun with the curled up toe!

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  17. Oh yes I love Fairytale of New York too - brings back wonderful memories of my university days with best friends! I adore your stocking - great work!

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  18. Your stocking is perfect and so appropriate for you.

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  19. What a gorgeous Stocking, beautiful fabrics. I too am from the UK living abroad so it's always a treat to see fabrics like this used in crafts.

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  20. ha ha! Yeah I'm a Brit in USA and it is SUCH a shame they don't play Slade's Here it is Merry Christmas on the radio! Bah humbug! your stocking is brill. Come over and say hi

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    1. I really miss all the British Xmas songs now I'm living over here :( I've popped by too and I've already printed off that crochet owl pattern you've used! :D

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  21. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow ...and I love your British flag!!!!! I hope you win the prize. I hope there IS a prize :) and you win it!

    Mary

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    1. Oh I do so love that song, one of my absolute favourite older Christmas songs. I have no idea if there's a prize for the Christmas stocking competition and come to that I'm not sure exactly what the measurable element of the competition is - not many of us have answered the challenge to date so I'm starting to wonder if it's a competition to see who actually makes a stocking for the store and who doesn't! :D

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  22. Love the stocking, my dad gets really irate with upside down flags - we get "do you think that pub is really in distress?!" Love every Xmas song ever written, the Michael Buble album was my fav present last year. And I've just started work on the boy's stocking, it might be done in time! (and he won't know or care if it isn't...) :D

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    1. Thanks Sarah, I'm with your Dad there - three pet annoyances for some Brits: the Union flag made incorrectly; hung incorrectly; and named incorrectly (though the flag's been named incorrectly for so long now that the term Union Jack is becoming acceptable)! Oh I do hope you'll be posting a pic of your stocking for the little guy - you're absolutely right though, he won't mind what happens this year but next year will be so different! :D

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  23. Oh I LOVE your stocking. I started making some for the family this year and really really love yours. thanks link I may give these at try.

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  24. What a fun stocking! Love the pom poms.

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  25. ....and now I want to make all new stockings! I love the curled up elf-y foot. Very cute!

    (hopped over from craftastic mondays!)

    createandplaymomma.com

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  26. I LOVE that Pogues song! It's always been one of my favourite Christmas tunes. Your stocking is fabulous, Chrissie. Ab fab, my friend! ;)

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  27. what a cute stocking- and a great representation of yourself!

    Thank you so much for sharing this at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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  28. Super cute stocking!!! Thanks for sharing at Submarine Sunday!!

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  29. 1973... a vintage year ;-)
    Love your stocking and also love the Pogues (especially Fairytale in New York- brings a tear to my eye every time!)

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  30. Love the stocking and your pet hate is the same as mine, which is why I took so long to make my union jack quilt, every pattern I found had the white stripes the same thickness or they were just wrong, which is why I eventually had Soma draft a pattern for me. Funny, I just realised I have the same fabric you made your stocking in! and I never even noticed the white stripes were wrong, I was just excited to find the fabric a couple off months ago!

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  31. I absolutely love Kristy MacColl's Fairy Tale in New York. When she passed away at such a young age I was shocked . Your stocking is beautiful.

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    1. That's so kind of you about the stocking, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out! I was shocked too when Kirsty died, I love her work and a favourite album of mine is Tropical Brainstorm and particularly the song 'In These Shoes', a real shame :(

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  32. What a fabulous stocking! Love the curly toes and everything British!
    Thanks so very much for linking it up with Ho Ho Ho and on we Sew!

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  33. Love, love, love it - A little touch of Brit across the pond! Wonderful sewing and attention to detail xx

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  34. I am a sucker for the Union Jack on cloth. That stocking rocks!

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Chris Dodsley


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