Make an Ice Skate Stocking for Christmas

Finding cute and unique ways to package small Christmas gifts for family and friends can lead you to recycling, using what you have and thinking outside the box. I feel like this Christmas ice skate stocking meets all those points. I used a tattered vintage quilt that I had no emotional ties to, a real ice skate and a wire clothes hanger. If you do not have an old quilt, you could use purchased quilted fabric or other recycled bedspreads and linens. A form-fitting ankle boot with a short heel may also be substituted for a skate shape. Using what you already have will keep this project inexpensive with one-of-a-kind charm.

Lightweight cardboard
Ice skate
Pencil
Scissors
Old quilt
Straight pins
Sewing machine
Muslin
Ruler
Rickrack or other trim
Needle and thread
Iron
Loopy chenille
Hot glue gun
Wire clothes hanger
Wire cutters
Needle nose pliers
Black spray paint

Step 1
Lay your ice skate on a piece of lightweight cardboard or poster board. Recycled cereal boxes also work well. Trace around the boot, heel and sole. Do not include the blade in the tracing. Cut out the shape.

Step 2
Fold the quilt into two layers with the right sides together. Lay the skate pattern on the quilt, positioned at least an inch from the quilt's edge. Trace around the pattern. Pin the quilt layers together to keep them from shifting. Sew around the skate shape on the traced line. Do not sew the top of the skate. Cut out the shape 1/4 inch from the stitched line.

Step 3
Fold a scrap of muslin fabric or a recycled bed sheet into two layers. Trace and sew the muslin in the same way as the quilt, leaving a 3-inch opening in the center of the boot's sole. Cut out the shape 1/4-inch from the stitched line. This is the stocking's lining.

Step 4
Clip the curves and corners of both stitched skates. This will allow curves and corners to lay flat and crisp when turned right side out.

Step 5
Turn the quilted skate right side out. Cut a 4 1/2-inch piece of rickrack, ribbon or other available trim. This will be your stocking's hanging loop. Fold the trim in half, matching the two short ends. Pin the cut ends to the top, back seam of the quilted skate. The loop of the hanger will be hanging down. Insert the quilted skate inside the wrong-side-out lining. Match up the top edge and pin the lining to the quilted skate. The loop will be sandwiched in between the layers. Sew around the pinned edge using a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

Step 6
Clip the curves and turn right side out through the opening in the lining. Hand sew the lining-opening closed. Tuck the lining inside the quilted skate and iron.

Step 7
Apply a dot of hot glue to the top, back seam of the stocking. Place one end of loopy chenille in the glue. Apply a line of hot glue around the top edge of the skate stocking. Lay the loopy chenille in the glue to create the cuff. Cut the chenille where the ends meet. My adult-size skate pattern used approximately 14 inches of loopy chenille. The amount will vary depending on the size of the real ice skate used.

Step 8
Recycle a wire clothes hanger. Cut the hanger apart. Straighten the wire using needle nose pliers. Measure the distance from the toe of your stocking to the back of the heel. Add 8 1/2 inches. Cut the wire to that measurement.

Step 9
Measure from one end 3 1/2 inches and bend the wire straight up. This is the toe of the blade. Grasp the end sticking straight up with your needle nose pliers. Curl the end outward into a spiral loop. Measure from the other end of the wire 5 inches and bend the wire straight up. Curl this end outward and into a spiral loop. Spray paint the wire black.

Step 10
Hand sew the front spiral curls to the front of the Christmas skate's toe and the back spirals to the back of the skate, above the heel.