Embroidered Stars On Stocking

SUPPLIES & TOOLS:

• Stocking
• Disappearing ink pen or white marking pencil
• Gold and silver embroidery floss
• 4" Embroidery hoop
• Embroidery needle
• Thimble (optional)
• Awl (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mark the stars on the stocking with a disappearing ink pen, or white marking pencil if your stocking is too dark to easily see the darker ink from the ink pen.
2. To mark the Nativity Star shape, make a plus sign with the vertical line longer than the horizontal, then make a short X through the center.
3. Set your embroidery hoop in place around the marked star shape, and use a back stitch to follow your marked lines with embroidery floss. (Back stitch refers to a single straight stitch that starts the next stitch a space ahead and finishes in the same hole of the first stitch.)
4. Once the lines are covered with embroidery floss, thicken the star shape by making another line of stitching on both sides of each line; stop these new lines 3-4 stitches before the first.
5. Cover the remaining gaps between lines with 2-3 short lines of stitching.
6. For smaller stars, you can make the whole line with a long stitch. Finish the star shape with a stitched X over the threads at the center of the star, and knot in back.

Craft Hack Tips and Tricks:

• Some metallic flosses unfurl quickly as you use them. As they unfurl they become harder to work with. Cutting short lengths of the floss is helpful, and using a large-eye needle is also helpful.
• Because of the thickness of the stocking, it can be helpful to pre-puncture holes with an awl. After you've marked your star shape with a marking pencil, place a piece of cardboard inside the stocking, behind the star, and use the awl to make little holes along your lines where the floss will be going in and out. If you do not have an awl, using something like the point of a seam ripper will also work.