My great-grandmother made a decorative sequinned stocking, out of felt of a quality not available today (and probably pure wool to boot), starting a tradition that extended down through my great aunt, my mother and me. Not all the stockings—including that oldest one—are shown here, but I hope to add them as I get a chance to photograph them.

However, I think the ones shown will give some idea of the tradition. Originally, the design called for a felt stocking, with pinked edges, a pinked insertion of contrasting color, and a pinked hanging loop and strap finished with bells. The iconography—snowmen, christmas trees, sleighs—tended to be secular, made of cut-out shapes of felt stitched to the background and embroidered with sequins. My great Aunt started putting names on the flap.

My mother didn't mess with the formula much, but I've played with it a bit, especially changing the hanging loops to the more durable braids, and changing the shape of the flap and adding beads and thread embroidery to the mix. Another favorite trick is to stack sequins of differing shapes and sizes on top of each other, anchoring them with a central seed bead. I also sometimes incorporated non-felt fabric, and decorative machine embroidery.

Since stockings are only used once a year, they don't have the same demands of durability that ordinary jewelry or clothing do; thus, while not using materials as impermanent as the gift-wrapping I've felt (forgive the pun) freer to use sequins, which are plastic, and plastic beads (which keep the weight down) in these projects. I hope you will enjoy this bit of my family's traditions.

creation? 26nov2005; updates: 5jan08, 09jan09.

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