We have a new sewing machine in the shop – the Janome Atelier 5, which was brought out in October. Although I had a quick go on it when it first arrived last month, I have been wanting to have a more in depth look at it so I could review it properly on the shop’s blog.
As yesterday was a quiet day I decided that I would use it to sew the advent stockings that I’ve been wanting to make. They are made from a panel by Makower which we sold in the shop. I hope that they redo them again next year because they just flew off the shelves and we sold out very quickly.

The first decision I had to make was whether to line them, so I sewed a couple together, one with and one without and decided they were nicer with lining.
Then I had to decide how I was going to do the tops… do I put bias binding around them or if not, how do I fold them so it looks neat? They are quite small stockings and a bit fiddly! Fortunately my Mum was here with me and she had her new Elna 664Pro Overlocker with her. She suggested that we overlock the top edges of the stockings, cut the lining so that it was slightly shorter than the stocking pieces and then fold them back in order to hand stitch the top down.

I also used Mum’s neat trick to put the lining in:
Cut out the lining pieces using the stocking pieces as a template.
Put the stocking piece and backing piece right sides together.

Put the two lining pieces together (if they had a right side, it would be the right sides together). Then pin them with the stocking pieces.
Sew down the side, around the toe and up the other side. Leave the top open.

You can then turn the stocking pieces inside out and the lining just falls into place, just like magic!

All that is left to do, is turn the top edges down and hand stitch into place together with a ribbon to string them up. I decided they are too small to top stitch on the machine neatly. I’ll get them done this weekend hopefully.
Incidentally you can read my review of the Janome Atelier 5 here.