Christmas Stockings for Tropical Climates and Those Who Would Just Rather Be On The Beach

As a lot of you know, I have an Etsy store where I sell a lot of things that I post about in my blog here. Around this time of year, after the hand full of Viking hat orders that I get just before Halloween, I start to get requests for Christmas stockings. I don't make just any Christmas stockings. I like to make ones that are a little outside the ordinary. Some of the ones I have made in the past include monster feet, dragon feet, mermaid tails, pirate boots, victorian boots, high heel boots, ballerina slippers, wolf paws, puppy paws, and bare feet. I even made a monster ballerina stocking for my wife.

I love the challenge of coming up with designs that are new and different, and I put in all my ads to message me for custom orders. So, I wasn't altogether surprised that during the first part of November I got a message requesting a special order. At first we were discussing making bare feet stockings for a husband and wife as well as maybe a pirate boot and ballerina for a daughter a son and a puppy paw for the family pet.

 As we exchanged emails back and forth establishing exactly what was wanted, the customer sent me a picture of a stocking that she saw online and asked if I could make one like it. Pictured to the right is the original photo. I checked all over online, and I couldn't find anywhere selling them. From the blog article where the photo was posted, it looks like the person may have purchased them on a trip to Hawaii. I had seen the photo before, but I had never seriously considered how I would make the pattern.



Of course, it being me, I said, "Sure, I'll give it a go!" I spent the next week working up a pattern eyeballing the photo and making my prototype. I then sent a picture of my mockup to the customer to see if it was what she wanted. It turns out, it was. She ordered one for herself, her husband (with hairy toes for him), and her son and daughter plus the original puppy paw for her dog. It was a fun back and forth deciding on colors and themes and embroidery for the names on the cuffs. It's the first time I've gotten to use the text option on my embroidery machine. I was really looking forward to testing that out too.

I think they turned out really, really well. It's a design that I will definitely keep in my pattern book. I have never claimed to be a great pattern maker, so I'm rather proud of myself for how well they turned out just from looking at a photo.  Below are the stockings that I made for the family.
This one is for the dad, Chris.    .

This one is for the mom, Meg.

This one is for the son, Wes.

This one is for the daughter, Sophia.

And this one is for the puppy, Ozzie.