Holiday Projects Begin...

A good friend had her first grandson this year. I offered to help her make something and she decided to do a special Christmas stocking. This is a great project for a new seamstress, since the stitching is fairly simple and the project not too large in size or time.
She requested a "baby elephant with hat and scarf and maybe something Christmas-y" Well, those particulars aren't easy to find in an embroidery design, but a Google search led me to this one:

It was a perfect match for her request and a nice size for a stocking.
I suggested cotton velveteen or a plaid flannel, but I also suggested she check the fabric store to see if anything appealed to her. She wanted the baby elephant in a blue/green theme because that is the baby's nursery theme and the stocking would match.

She choose the navy and white co-ordinating quilting cottons with silver glitter swirls. We interfaced the navy fabric to give the stocking more body. The cuff is lined and has the baby's name in "Curlz" font.

I used a free PDF stocking pattern and enlarged it to 105%. It's a nice traditional stocking shape!

We stitched  the elephant on my new Brother Dream Machine and it stitched with no glitches! I love the striped hat and my friend had the idea to hand-stitch a tiny silver jingle bell at the tip. We also  thought about stitching jumbo red rick-rack behind the bottom of the cuff and adding the jingle bells at every other point.

But even if she doesn't add any embellishments, I think this is an adorable stocking and very festive.

Doesn't it look like the little elephant is dreaming of a swirling snow on Christmas Eve??