Day 2: DIY Stockings #1

Day 2 – DIY Stockings #1 & Hmong Symbol Cut-Outs

Isn't it adorable!? You can make your own stocking (as we did) or use a premade one from the store. The best part is that most of the materials required, you may already have at home! Using your imagination, you can create a variety of different stockings. They’re easy to decorate with your choice of embellishments!

Basic Materials:

• Felt (color of your choice) OR store bought stocking OR material of your choice
• Scissors (easier to cut if sharp)
• Glue or -
• Sewing machine & thread (if creating your own stocking)
• Embellishments of your choice – be creative!

The following steps pertain to felt symbol cut outs. You can choose to draw the symbols as well. We will be using these felt cut-out steps throughout a variety of Hmong-Inspired projects.

Step 1: Google an image. If you are unable to immediately come up with a Hmong symbol or design at the top of your head, go ahead and research it. We typed in: Hmong symbols and used the image search to locate a few basic designs to go off of.

We will be using the heart symbol in this tutorial <3

Step 2: We chose to free draw the selected design right onto our felt with a black marker. These lines will be your cutting lines. You want to make sure that there is about ¼” between the drawn lines. Here we only did half of the heart because we will be folding the felt in half so that when we cut it out, we will have cut out the other side as well. This allows us to get an almost symmetrical heart cut out.

Step 3: Folding the felt in half, you will cut through both layers, following the drawn lines. It can be tricky holding both layers of felt while cutting as it may shift slightly as your scissor maneuvers around the design. Just hold tight and be very careful when cutting as your fingers will be fairly close to your scissor blades!

Next cut out the center - leave 1/4" from edge!

And wah-laa! You have the basic shape done!

Step 4: Now pick up your scissors again and trim the inner part of the swirls. This will help add space between the design.

Step 5: Use glue or double sided bonding to attach the design to the stocking. If you used a marker to draw your design, you can flip over the symbol to help hide the marks!

Be creative and make more designs – big and small, different colors, etc – and create unique, one-of-a-kind, Hmong-Inspired stockings!