Trick or Treaters Stocking Finishing Supplies

The photo you see above shows all the finishing supplies I'll need for the Squiggee trick or treaters stocking. I have two fabrics, a purple satin and a thin novelty fabric that has orange fuzzy Halloween motifs on netting. I plan to layer the two fabrics on the back side of the stocking. Then I will twist the orange and the purple ThreadworX threads together to make a cord to go around the edge of the stocking. I thought about including some of the green I used for the fright wig but I think three colors are a bit much since including the green might mute the effect of all that green spiky hair. By the way, I won't make a traditional twisted cord from my two threads. That would trap too much of the fuzzy stuff. I'll just twist them together in my hand, stitch them down, and then use the blunt end of my needle to gently comb and fluff the thread to get as much of the ends to stand out as possible. Here's the ThreadworX website with the Legacy Collection thread colors, just in case you are tempted....

http://threadworx.com/product.php?catid=5&catName=The%20Legacy%20Collection

If you look carefully at the photo, you'll see the paper cutout I did from the color copy of my canvas. I always make a color copy (and often several black and white copies) of my projects. You can cut out the shape to aid finishing, you can see where things you've stitched over go when you are ready to add them, and it's just a good reminder of where the plain canvas started before you got your grubby little paws on it and went to town!

I used the paper pattern to cut out the quilting template you see as the clear stocking shape next to the pattern. I'd never heard of quilting template until Summer Truswell kindly told me about it. (When a superb professional finisher gives you tips--listen and listen hard!) This stuff comes in sheets of clear plastic about the size of an extra large place mat for $2 or so. You can buy it with a grid of what looks like one inch squares on it also, but that costs twice as much and I didn't need that here. Cut it with scissors to shape and you have the perfect lightweight stiffener to put inside ornaments. You can see a photo (next to last on this page) of the gridded and the plain with a pattern drawn on it at this website.

http://www.fabriclandwest.com/quilters%20corner/quilting_tools.htm

The last thing in the photo is two wooden dolls from the crafts emporium. They are in the wooden forms section, the place where you buy plain wooden letters to paint and put on a child's door. I could have bought wooden dowels and a wooden base and mounted the stocking on a stick but I decided I wanted to try something a bit different. I plan to take one of the dolls and insert it in the base of the stocking so that it will rest on a desk without any visible means of support. This means the stocking will be finished inside in the opposite way of most Christmas (or any other holiday) stockings. Normally, there's an opening in the top but my trick or treaters stocking will not open to hold candy corn. Instead, there will be a space in the base to insert the wooden support. I will leave it open so that when Halloween is over, the little wooden form can be removed and the stocking laid flat in a drawer until October 31st rolls around again.

Now all I need is to sit down and attempt to put this all together. If we could have a moment of silence, please!

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