upcycling sentimentality

I've held on to a heather, grayish blue sweater for 15 years. I bought it in Edinborough, Scotland when there on a chorale tour in college. What's more iconic than Scottish wool? Well I suppose there may be a few other things, but hey, I'm a knitter. Scottish wool is something else. I remember the ruggedness of the main thoroughfare through Glasgow. It all seemed so dark, mysterious and medieval. Thus the strange attachment I've had with this sweater. It held so many fun memories, so many firsts for me.

For awhile now I've wanted to cut it up and make something out of it. When I was looking at patterns to knit some Christmas stockings for my family, feeling overwhelmed by how long they take, or how intricate the patterns were, it hit me. Maybe I could make stockings out of my sweater?! My creative juices started to flow and now I am the proud maker of 4 Christmas stockings. They turned out really great, without too much fuss. I just kind of made it up as I went along.

First, I laid out my template and went for it! Gotta tell ya, I had to be a "braveheart" to make the first cut! I had mental pictures of everything unraveling on me! Surprisingly it didn't! I decided to flip over the ribbed bottom of the sweater to make the "cuff" of the stocking. Pretty clever eh?

Next I sewed together the "wrong sides" of the material.

Then on to cutting out the linings. I found a really pretty dark blue fabric with snowflakes.

Here's the finished products! I also found some cording and snowflake buttons to finish off the project. I plan to add some kind of identifying embellishment, perhaps a letter appliqué, or an embroidered tag. I wanted to go ahead and post the blog, it may take a bit to find just the right thing!

Tate's stocking in the middle is actually cut from the shoulder/sleeve area. Ended up making a pretty cool toe section.