There's No Soot In This Santa Sack!!!

When Santa got stuck up the chimney, he began to shout,

"You girls and boys won't get any toys, if you don't pull me out!

My beard is black, there's soot in my sack, my nose is tickling too."

When Santa got stuck up the chimney. Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!

When I was little I had a Santa Sack - well when I was really, really little it was a pillowcase and then Mum bought 2 heavy paper, super large Santa Sacks - one was green with red Christmas trees and the other was red with green Christmas trees,  we used those sacks year after year after year.

My children had their own Santa Sacks - fabric ones but shop bought - you might have seen them, they're pretty common.  Shop bought or not, they're full of memories for them and me and I loved seeing their faces each year when the empty sacks came out on Christmas Eve and even more the next morning when they saw them overflowing with presents from Santa. 

Last year I made my first Christmas Stocking - I absolutely love it but it's more decorative than practical.  You can read more about it here - Are You Hanging Up Your Stocking On The Wall?.

With the birth of Grandson Oliver this year seemed like time to make my first Santa Sack for him to create his own Christmas memories and what better than The Very Hungry Caterpillar Christmas panel part of the Eric Carle collection under license to Andover Fabrics?

For full instructions on how to make a Santa Sack click through to my Santa Sack Tute here.

Cutting the panel into two sections, I added a red top border and layered with batting.

Next I free motion quilted around the print detail changing colours along the way.
It's easiest to show you the stitching from the back...

...and then some detail sections from the front.

I added a decorative stitched row along the red border seam too.

To commerate Oliver's birth year I cut "Xmas 2014" lettering from double sided fusible and bonded each to co-ordinating Andover Christmas fabrics which I attached to the Xmas Tree panel using a raw edge applique technique (see my Raw Edge Applique Tute here).

A great wavy striped Xmas lining pattern by Kim Schaefer for Andover Fabrics and I've added my label to the lining and to the outside bottom edge of the sack and joined the outside and inside with another row of decorative stitching.  Finished size is 21" x 27".  

Finished...

...and full for now with presents from Grandma.

  

When I shared pics with my kids it sparked them all off trying to remember just what The Very Hungry Caterpillar ate, they loved the book when they were small and it was fun remembering it.  Seemed to me I needed to make a couple more of these Santa Sacks, don't tell my other two kids but I've made them one each too so they can each start their own Christmas memories.

Different linings in each, these two are holly leaves also by Kim Schaefer for Andover Fabrics.

Do you have a Christmas Stocking or a Santa Sack, what does he leave your presents in?

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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'

Merry Xmas Everybody - 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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Disclaimer:  This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.