Making your own Christmas decorations is a ritual in my family. It has always been part of the festive fun! From handmade biscuits to painted baubles and what else? Christmas Stockings!!!

This year I wanted to juxtapose traditional Christmas themes with Beatrix Potter’s ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit’. I have always loved the little books and even today I am a still leafing trough the pages to find inspiration. Beatrix Potter’s relationship between the conservation of the natural world and her imaginations of the little farm animals is truly remarkable.

Early in October I was shopping at the Hobbycraft store when I saw the wonderful Peter Rabbit Fat Quarters. I couldn’t resist them, so bought all the colours available. I then used the pink and grey collection to make these three unique Christmas Stockings. There are four pieces included in the set of fat quarters. This set is ideal for quilt patchwork and sewing projects.

Rather than having to reinvent the wheel, I did some research and found the sewing magazine ‘Love Sewing’ (issue 58) at the newsagent. It had a little Christmas book made in partnership with the McCall Pattern Co. and I discovered a wonderful project by Wendy Gardiner on a step by step guide to making magic patchwork stockings.

Materials and tools to make the pink Peter Rabbit stocking:

• 3 different 23cm x 19.3cm fabric remnants
• 2 different 18cm x 15 cm fabric remnants
• 50cm x 115cm-wide fabric for back, cuff, loop, patch & lining
• 38cm x 15 cm non-fusible fleece or wadding
• Templates downloaded from Love Sewing magazine or by purchasing McCall’s Crafts 6453

After I cut my pattern sheet and the fabric. I started sewing each square together.

For my second stocking I was inspired by the ‘crazy quilted’ style! Crazy because you cut different sized pieces of fabric that fit your stocking shape and sew them randomly together (see my photo below). For a step-by-step guide you can visit the Hobbycraft blog.

Materials and tools to make the Grey Peter Rabbit stocking

• 1 pack Fat Quarters
• 1metre of contrasting plain coloured cotton fabric
• 1 metre of wadding
• Matching thread
• Templates downloaded from Hobbycraft.

For my third stocking I created my own pattern by dividing the template in three sections and sewing it together using a similar style to the others.

And here they are all together, hanging on my fireplace, ready to be filled!