How to Sew a Christmas Stocking: Draft Your Own Pattern

You don't need to download anyone's PDF. A Christmas stocking is a boot shape, and a boot shape is three measurements: how tall, how long the foot is, and how wide the top opens. Draw that on paper once and you can make a mini for the tree or a large one for the mantel from the same method.

This guide drafts the template, then builds a lined stocking with a cuff and a hanging loop. Every seam ends up hidden inside, so there is nothing to finish. It's a good second or third project after something like a pillowcase (our first-projects list has the order).

Our template dimensions, three sizes

These are our design recommendations. Stockings have no industry standard size, so treat the numbers as a starting point and change them freely.

The cuff and loop come from the same numbers:

• Cuff: cut a rectangle (top width minus 1 in) x 2 + 1 in wide, and cuff depth x 2 + 1 in tall. For the standard stocking that is 14 x 11 in.
• Loop: a strip 2 in wide and 6 in long (5 in for the mini, 8 in for the large).

Draw the boot on paper

Use anything big enough: wrapping paper turned over, a paper bag opened flat, taped printer paper.

1. Draw a straight vertical line the template height. This is the back of the leg.
2. From the top of that line, draw the top width across to the right.
3. From the bottom of the line, draw the sole across to the right, the full heel-to-toe length.
4. Round the heel: trace the edge of a mug where the back line meets the sole.
5. Round the toe: trace a side plate or bowl at the far end of the sole, curving up about a third of the leg height.
6. Join the front of the leg to the top of the toe curve with a gentle inward curve at the ankle.
7. Cut the template out and hold it up. If it looks like a stocking, it is one.

Choose the fabric

For a stocking that stands up rather than slumping, cut two extra boots from thin quilt batting or fusible fleece and layer them behind the outer pieces. Skip it for felt.

Should you prewash? Most stockings come out once a year and never see a washing machine, so it's optional. If a child's stocking might get washed, prewash the cotton the way you would wash it, and test a strong red before it goes next to cream (how to decide).

Gear mentioned above

What we'd buy for this

One pick per category, chosen from the research pages linked in this piece. Borrow before you buy — nothing here is required to start.

• 
  Quilt Batting

  FIVEIZERO 100%$12.99★ 4.7 out of 5 stars · 601 ratings

  Priced in the lower half of this category; cotton batting, which quilts flat and softens with washing; low loft, which is the easier one to feed through a domestic machine.

  Why this oneBuy
• 
  Sewing Machines

  Brother XM2701$149.00★ 4.6 out of 5 stars · 19,332 ratings

  A first machine — 27 built-in stitches is enough to sew clothes without a menu to decode, and the listing specifies the automatic needle threader and the jam-resistant drop-in top bobbin, which are the two steps beginners most often give up on.

  Why this oneBuy
• 
  Fabric Scissors

  Wteehn$9.89★ 4.8 out of 5 stars · 1,646 ratings

  Priced in the lower half of this category; the handles are the ergonomic style, which matters more than it sounds once you are cutting out a whole garment.

  Why this oneBuy

Researched from listings, specs and owner feedback — never hands-on testing. We may earn a commission; it never changes a pick.

What you need

• A sewing machine with a straight stitch (or a needle and thread, see the FAQ)
• Sharp fabric scissors, or a rotary cutter such as the Fiskars 45mm rotary cutter with a mat
• Pins or clips; clips for velvet, minky and thick layers
• Outer fabric, lining fabric, a cuff scrap, and a loop strip or a length of ribbon

Not sure which cutting tool suits you? Our rotary cutter vs scissors comparison covers it. For thick velvet, check the needle size guide before you start.

The two traps that catch beginners

Do this:

• Fold the fabric right sides together and cut both boots at once. You get a mirrored left and right pair for free.
• Cut the lining the same folded way, so it is a mirrored pair too.
• Clip the curves after sewing: small V-notches around the outward toe and heel curves, straight snips into the inward ankle curve.

Not this:

• Cutting one boot, flipping nothing, and cutting another. Both toes point the same way and the pieces won't line up.
• Clipping through the stitching. Stop a couple of threads short, or the seam opens.
• Skipping the clips. The toe turns out lumpy and the ankle puckers.

Pinking shears trimmed close around the curves do the same job as notching, in one pass.

Build it, step by step

1. Cut. Two outer boots, two lining boots, the cuff rectangle and the loop strip. Add two batting boots if you are using them, and baste them to the wrong side of each outer piece.
2. Sew the outer. Pin the outer boots right sides together and sew around the sides and foot, leaving the top open. Clip the curves and turn it right side out.
3. Sew the lining. Sew the lining boots the same way, but leave a gap of about 4 inches in the straight back seam. Clip the curves. Leave it inside out.
4. Make the cuff. Sew the short ends of the rectangle together to make a ring, right sides together. Fold it in half with the wrong sides together, raw edges matching. Slip it over the top of the outer stocking, raw edges up, with the cuff seam at the back seam.
5. Add the loop. Fold the strip in half lengthwise, right sides together, sew the long edge and turn it (or press both long edges in and edgestitch). Fold it into a loop and baste both ends at the back seam, raw ends up, loop hanging down over the cuff.
6. Bag it out. Slide the outer stocking, right side out with its cuff and loop, inside the inside-out lining. Match the top edges and the back seams. Sew all the way around the top.
7. Turn and topstitch. Pull the whole stocking out through the gap in the lining. Close the gap with an edgestitch on the machine or a ladder stitch by hand. Push the lining down inside, press the top edge, then lift the cuff and topstitch just below the top seam so the lining can't roll out. Drop the cuff back down and flip the loop up.

Make it 3D: the gusseted stocking

A flat stocking is two boots sewn face to face. A 3D stocking has a strip of fabric, the gusset, sewn between them all the way round, so it has a flat 2-inch sole and some depth. Stiffened with batting or fusible fleece, it holds its shape and can stand on a shelf, especially with something in the toe, instead of lying flat. Everything else in this guide stays the same, apart from three numbers.

How long the gusset has to be

The gusset gets sewn to the seam line of each boot, half an inch in from the cut edge, starting at the top of the back edge and running around the heel, along the sole, around the toe and up the front to the top. So its length is that distance, measured on the seam line rather than on the cut edge.

For our standard template, drawn with a heel curve of about 1.5 inches radius and a toe curve rising about 5 inches (roughly a third of the leg height), the seam line breaks down like this:

Your boot was traced from your own mug and plate, so yours will differ by an inch or two. Measure it: stand a tape measure on its edge and walk it along the seam line from top back to top front. Then cut the gusset a couple of inches longer than your number and trim the spare at the end.

The three numbers that change

• Gusset strips: 3 inches wide, which is a 2-inch finished depth plus two half-inch seam allowances. Cut two strips 3 x 22 inches and join the short ends with a half-inch seam to make one strip 43 inches long, 2½ inches spare on the standard template. Make one for the outer and one for the lining. A fat quarter gives six such strips, enough for both if you use one fabric.
• Cuff width: the top opening grows by the gusset depth at the back and again at the front. On the standard template that is 6.5 + 6.5 + 2 + 2 = 17 inches around the seam line, so cut the cuff 17 + 1 = 18 x 11 inches instead of 14 x 11.
• Batting: if you are stiffening the outer, cut a 3-inch batting strip for the outer gusset too, or leave the gusset unpadded.

Sewing the gusset in

1. Start at the back. Pin one end of the strip to the top of the back edge of an outer boot, right sides together, raw edges matching.
2. Pin it round the boot, easing it around the heel and toe. Snip the gusset's seam allowance every half inch on those two curves so it can spread, stopping a couple of threads short of the stitching line. At the ankle, where the front edge turns inward, snip the boot's allowance instead.
3. Sew it on with a half-inch seam, from the top back to the top front. Trim the spare gusset level with the top edge.
4. Chalk-mark the other edge of the gusset where the heel and toe landed, so the second boot lines up and the stocking does not twist.
5. Sew the second outer boot to the other edge of the gusset the same way, matching the marks. Turn it right side out.
6. Build the lining the same way, leaving the 4-inch turning gap in one of the straight back seams between the gusset and a boot.
7. Finish exactly as before: the 18-inch cuff and the loop go on at the back, the outer slides into the lining, one seam around the top, turn, close the gap, topstitch.

Felt is the easiest fabric for a first 3D stocking: it holds the flat sole without batting and the curves need no finishing.

Make it yours

• Quilted: piece the outer from scraps, layer it with batting and quilt straight lines before cutting the boot. The beginner quilting guide covers the basics.
• Named: stitch or appliqué a name on the cuff before you sew it into a ring. It's much easier flat.
• A set: one template, different fabrics per person. The matching shape is what makes a row of stockings look planned.

Make one this weekend. A slightly crooked stocking on the mantel is a better stocking than the perfect one still in a basket. Wonky seams are the whole point.