You’ve just bought your family Christmas stockings on sale at the store; now make them personal for each family member! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to easily hoop a Christmas stocking for embroidery and stitch a beautiful design. 

What you’ll need for this project: 

Optional:

  • Spray basting adhesive 
  • Sticky stabilizer

The first thing you’ll want to do is pick out your font. In this project, I’m using Designs By Juju’s Christmas Pie Font. I have uploaded the BX file into the Embrilliance software. You can use any embroidery software you'd like. If you have never uploaded a font before, you can do so by simply dragging and dropping it into the program. 

Next, you’ll want to type the name you will embroider on your Christmas Stocking. Be sure your orientation is correct depending on how your hoop attaches to the machine. You can also follow these steps to stitch a design rather than a name. I will show you side by side using Designs By Juju’s Swirly Christmas Blessings. I will be using the 4x4 design; the size of your design depends on the size of your stocking and machine capabilities. Be sure to measure your stocking when deciding what size you'd like to use. You may have to scale the design up or down to fit your stocking.

Now, to hoop your Christmas stocking for embroidery. First, you want to hoop a piece of cut-away stabilizer. I will be using the floating technique along with some masking tape. If you are not as comfortable floating, you can use spray-basting adhesive or sticky stabilizer to help keep your stocking in place. Once you have your stabilizer hooped, draw a grid to help you determine where the middle of your hoop is. The grid will help with centering your project.

Taking your stocking and a ruler, find the center of your stocking. You can use a water-soluble fabric marker to mark the center.

Next, take a piece of water-soluble stabilizer and pin it to the stocking. The stabilizer will help keep the stitches from sinking into the fabric of fluffier stockings.

Now, to be able to hoop your Christmas stocking for embroidery. You will flip the cuff up so that it is inside out. Be careful not to poke yourself with pins!

Next, lay your stocking on top of your hooped stabilizer. Line up the middle of the stocking with the center of the stabilizer. Once the stocking is lined up, you can use masking tape to keep it in place. If you decide to use the optional items, this is the step in which you would spray the stabilizer with adhesive to help keep your project in place.

Now, to the machine we go! You'll carefully attach your hoop to your machine. Once your hoop is attached, carefully pull back the top part of the cuff so that the foot of your machine is on the part of the stocking you'll be embroidering. Upload your design to your machine.

Thread your machine with your desired thread color. Before you press go, hold the top of the cuff back to help prevent your stocking from shifting out of place and the foot from stitching the wrong part of the stocking. Once you're comfortable holding the stocking, press go and begin stitching. If you’re stitching a design rather than a single name, you will have thread changes. Follow the steps on your machine. The DBJJ Swirly Christmas Blessings ‘Believe’ design has four thread changes.

These next few steps are all the same no matter what you decide to stitch on your Christmas stocking. Once your design is finished stitching, remove your hoop from the machine. You'll want to remove the hoop from your stocking.

Next, you’re going to cut the excess stabilizer from your stocking. Cut as close to the design as possible without cutting the stitches.

Once the stabilizer is trimmed, flip the cuff back down. Remember that you have pins on the inside! You don't want to get poked! Once turned out, trim any extra threads. If you stitch a design, there will be more threads to cut! Then, you can remove your pins and rip off the water-soluble stabilizer. Ripping off the stabilizer is one of my favorite parts; it's SO satisfying! If any part of the stabilizer won't rip off, simply wet it with water, and it will dissolve.

And there you have it, a personalized Christmas stocking. The possibilities are endless, especially with Designs by Juju embroidery files! You can stitch names, monograms, sayings, or even a design. It is SO easy to take a store-bought Christmas stocking and customize it!

Please share your projects in the Designs by JuJu Embroidery Blessings Group on Facebook or anywhere on social media using the hashtag #designsbyjuju. We’d love to see what you create!