I've been learning by trial and error. While the instructions for these stockings includes a very long list of steps, the details of the work aren't dictated. Should I embroider before or after affixing the pieces? What about all the thread color changes? It's really a pain to pull out a red thread... I mean floss... to do one teeny spot, ie; the mouth. So I've started looking for other pieces in the set that also need stitch work and have been trying to used up the thread before switching to a new color. some of these are embroidered before being affixed, and others after. It seems that embroidered over stuffing makes a piece look more defined. For example the two sides of the head piece, the dark green floss over the light green felt... one side (right) is embroidered before stuffing and the other sided (left) after. Which is better?
I'm also stuffing every piece possible, as advised by Debbie Bailey, a YouTube blogger who is obsessed with these Bucilla stocking kits.
This started out as a back up stocking... as a relative has kindly made these for 5 of my 7 children. A promise of "maybe" one more this Christmas is in the works, but I decided to give it a try just in case she can't squeeze out another for us for a while. Now I've got three kits in my house... cause I want to make more... cause I'd rather be stitching beads then reading my Continuing Education Nursing course materials....
You know what would be awesome?! Some sort of auto reader that reads the CE stuff to me and I could knit and sew while listening. That would be great! I love doing more than one thing at a time so I can feel like I'm never wasting time.
