Last Saturday I had the pleasure of inviting Karen Willatt back to Needlecase so she could run a very informal Christmas stocking making workshop for a small group of us.
Sadly that group became even smaller than expected when Jenny turned up full of cold and feeling unwell, but she still didn’t miss out on the festive fun as we packaged her up all the materials and instructions she needed to make her own stocking at home. I had a quick coffee with Jenny while Karen got everything together for her and she even had a browse in store and bought some extra calico to make multiple stockings! Meanwhile Jeanette arrived to make up the numbers a little and we were just waiting for Deborah to complete our group of Saturday morning sewers.
The workshop had been advertised as covering machine sewing and hand embroidery techniques and so we were all duly armed with our sewing machines but as the day of leisurely sewing, tea drinking and mince pie eating unfolded, we never actually managed to get the point when we needed the machines! So next time I have decided to save people the heavy lifting of bringing their machines with them and suggest people finish the stocking off at their leisure at home.
Karen had done lots of preparation ready for us on the day so we each had ready cut pieces of calico which made up the actual stocking and we just simply had to choose and cut out a patterned fabric to use for decorating the toe and heel. After attaching these pieces to the stocking we got down to the real fun of making up our embroidery designs. Karen had provided us with lots of inspiration but bring a creative bunch, everyone had their own ideas for adaptions to make our designs truly unique.
We had a lovely relaxing time embroidering our stockings with Karen on hand to advise us about which stitch to use and how to achieve the best results, and with plenty of time to chat and a very pleasant break for lunch at The Granary it really was a relaxing day and I know that once my stocking is completed it will make a long lasting Christmas decoration.
We have plans for some more smaller workshops between now and Christmas, the next one being on Thursday evening 28th November when we will be making some gorgeous little Robins and the second is on Sunday 1st December we will have some one hour sessions making small tree decorations. Book your place now.