I found the old scans of the cuffs I finished stitching for Madeline and Julia! They hadn't been blocked yet - I leave that to the finisher. These were the smaller version, as I did two sizes at that time. Some of the stockings on the market are too large and heavy looking for a smaller fireplace. When I started painting stocking cuffs, I made a tracing of a kind of "standard" size stocking by a designer whose shape I liked - some of them are rather strange looking, even though the designs are lovely. Then I traced what I thought would be a suitablel size - depth - for just the cuff only. That, I drew also a bit smaller, which is what I used on the William Morris and the Poinsettias. These two cuffs are 9" wide at the top and 8" wide at the bottom.
On the William Morris piece, I left only a little bit of white at the top and added beads. The rest is stitched with Splendor silk and outlined in Kreinik metallic gold. The "grapes" are made with bump stitches and Flair. At the bottom, I added amethysts, which are Madeline's birthstone.
The poinsettias also have beads at the top, and the rest is worked to resemble cloisonne' with just basketweave in silk and outlined in metallic gold. The berries are bump stitches in Flair. December birthstone is turquoise, so I added them to the bottom on a "chain." There is also the factor that the color is beautiful with red - something Faberge' used in many of the enameled pieces.
The two angel cuffs were custom for two little girls in another family. I wanted them to still be pretty when the girls were grown - and not something childish they would outgrow - as this is quite an investment in time spent stitching, and also the sentiment is appreciated for many years in the future..
These stocking cuffs with the body of the stocking made of velveteen are really pretty hanging from a mantle against a fireplace - much nicer, I think, than several very busy whole stockings, and not so heavy looking. Also, the time factor in getting them done isn't so daunting!!
2 comments:
These are delightful - and certainly reducing the time required would reduce the stress some stitchers pile on themselves at Christmas!
Stockings are inherently endearing to begin with; those made by mother are cherished for a lifetime and beyond. I'm getting more and more enthused about taking on our family stocking cuffs! Thank you for sharing yours.
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