How To Embroider A Christmas Stocking

There’s nothing quite like adding your own personal touch to holiday decor. This tutorial will show you how to embroider a Christmas stocking. It’s super simple and doesn’t take a lot of time to do, and let’s be real: it looks way more rustic than a store-bought one!

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How To Embroider A Christmas Stocking

Supplies Needed

• Embroidery floss
• Embroidery needle
• Christmas stocking
• embroidery marker or stick n stitch stabilizer
• Embroidery scissors
• Tape

Choosing a Stocking

You can either purchase a stocking or make one yourself.

If you purchase one, you’ll want to make sure you get one that is made of a medium weight, natural fabric. (Cotton or linen are great to go with, you want to make sure it’s something you can easily stitch through.)

Make sure the top fold isn’t secured or sewn onto the stocking: you’ll need to be able to get underneath the top fold to stitch on it.

Avoid purchasing stockings with fur. This will be hard to stitch on and it won’t turn out as nice!

Another option is to make your own, which is what I ended up doing. I followed this pattern. I assembled the stocking first before I stitched the name onto it. If you feel confident in your sewing abilities, it is possible to stitch the name first on the liner before you assemble all the pieces, but this does require some planning and precision.

How To Stitch Names On Stockings

If hand lettering is your thing, you can draw the name directly on the stocking. Otherwise, you can use your favorite font and print it directly onto stick n stitch stabilizer. The second option is definitely easier if you don’t feel super confident with your lettering abilities!

Need a little inspiration? The four fonts pictured above are all free to use on Canva.

If you’re drawing the lettering on by hand, it’s helpful to place a piece of tape on the fabric to help keep the lettering straight. Then you’re ready to start drawing using a water soluble fabric marker.

If you mess up, just take a damp cloth and dab the marks you want to remove. Allow it to dry before you start drawing again.

Now comes the fun part: stitching the letters! You can use an embroidery hoop if you feel the need to. The interfacing in my Christmas stocking made the fabric pretty stiff and easy to work with so I went without one.

In regards to the embroidery stitches to use, you can use any sort of outline stitch to stitch the name. I chose to use the back stitch.

For smaller accents like the holly leaves I used the satin stitch. For the berries I used French knots.

Extra Tips

• If you want a bolder looking line, use all 6 strands of floss.
• Make sure to keep your stitches short and even while you’re stitching.
• If you’re having a hard time making your letters look smooth, check out this post for how to embroider letters.

Once you’re finished with the design, thoroughly rinse the fabric with water to remove any marks and allow to air dry.

I hope this brings some holiday cheer into your home. Merry Christmas!