Sock Monkey Christmas Stockings

My friend Jacquelyn is in the process of planning an Epic Sock Monkey Christmas. She's going all out for this event. Think sock monkey ornaments, decorations and even an inflatable for the front yard. A few months ago she asked if I would be willing and able to make a Christmas tree skirt for the occasion. I had a great time coming up with a knit pattern for the epic celebration.

Her family was so pleased with the tree skirt she asked if I could make some Christmas stockings as well. I love unique custom projects so I just couldn't say no. This time, instead of knitting, I decided to try something new, applique. I know how to use a sewing machine, so how hard could it be?

I have made Christmas stockings before and decided to use one my basic Christmas stocking pattern

Next, I sketched out a pattern for the monkey faces on my computer using Paint. It's not very high tech, but it worked.

I have seen a fabric setting on my Silhouette Cameo, but have never used it before and thought this would be a great time to give it a try. I was able to use the trace feature to create each of my pattern pieces.





I ironed interfacing onto the back of my fabrics then used my Cameo to cut out each piece.







Then I used a narrow zig zag stitch to attach the smile to the monkey's snout,

his snout onto his head,

and finally I gave him some eyes.









Then my project started going south. I attached the monkey's head to the stocking and it just looked blah. All the fabrics I had chosen were solids and the stocking looked really bland even with the little hat and scarf I had knitted. I thought maybe I could add some dimension to improve things, so I filled the monkey's face with a bit of stuffing. Poor thing looked like he had a bad case of the mumps. (I took pictures of all of this, but when I resigned myself to the fact that I needed to redo my work I deleted my pictures in a moment of frustration.)

Frustration and anxiety... and the entire project went into a dark corner for a few days.

After a lot of deep breathing and a trip to Jo-Ann, I resumed the project with focus and determination.

This time the combination of fabrics I chose were perfect! I repeated the applique process, attached the hats and scarves, finished the stockings, wrapped them up and delivered them to Jacquelyn. Her reaction? Happily, she was quite pleased to add the stockings to her collection and even blogged about them a couple hours after we met.