New Year's socks for gifts: how to choose and how to do it yourself?

The coming of the New Year is always a creative mood and anticipation of the upcoming holiday. We think about how to decorate the house, how to present gifts to loved ones in an original way. In our article today, we will look at how to make traditional Christmas Stockings with your own hands, in which you can place small gifts, and how best to decorate them in a festive style.

The tradition of hanging socks by the fireplace originated in Europe. She is associated with Saint Nicholas (also known as Santa Claus, who lives in Lapland), who, according to legend, presented three poor girls with gold bars on Christmas night. Since then, the fame of the unusual and generous act has spread everywhere. And for many years now, children and adults all over Europe have been hanging festively decorated socks over the fireplace in anticipation of gifts.

In Russia, this tradition has appeared quite recently and is considered quite original. Nevertheless, everyone's favorite Christmas movies are often full of frames with original holiday decorations. And having decorated the house with such an accessory, you will certainly evoke a wave of good feelings and pleasant associations in your loved ones. And you can tell the children a fairy tale about Saint Nicholas, who gave us such a wonderful tradition.

It is difficult to choose such a wonderful festive accessory - store shelves and fairground tents are full of variety. But still, the best option would be not to look for a sock in the store, but to create an adornment with your own hands! At least because it is exciting, you can connect your family and children to the work, for whom the creative process will serve as an excellent preparation for the upcoming holidays. Of course, hand-decorated Christmas socks are a real classic!

There are many types of decorations for New Year's socks. As a decoration option, you can even use stockings or ordinary felt boots (such an impromptu sock will look very original). You can arrange such an unusual store for gifts in the form of boots of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden in the appropriate style: paint with snowflakes using paints on the fabric (or embroider them with threads), embroider with beads and sequins. And make the trim from faux fur or swan down.

You can also make a sock yourself, for example, knit (knitted socks look very cozy and home-like) or sew using special patterns. Let's talk about this in more detail.

There are many templates for making Christmas decorations in specialized stores and on thematic forums. First of all, you need to decide on the size of the accessories and choose the right material.

Knitted socks are always good, if you have the skills of crocheting or knitting, it will not be difficult for you to knit New Year's too. But even if you are a beginner needlework master, using a suitable scheme, you will be able to cope with this task. What we need:

• suitable yarn;
• hook or knitting needles;
• knitting patterns.

Classic New Year's socks for gifts can be knitted without a heel, the main thing is to keep the shape of the sock. The traditional "braid" technique, which we are used to seeing on warm winter sweaters, will look very beautiful on knitted socks. You can decorate the socks with pom-poms on a yarn lace or braid you like.

The easiest way to make a festive sock is from textiles. And it is absolutely not necessary to be able to sew perfectly, since the patterns are very simple, you can even draw your favorite shape of the product yourself. And the halves of the sock can be fastened with a decorative seam or simply glued with special glue - they will hold tightly.

What fabric is better to choose for making New Year's decorations - most often, handmade craftsmen prefer dense fabric that is easy to process. Today, the most popular for needlework, for example, materials such as felt, fleece and tapestry.

Felt socks are quite simple to make, but they will look very impressive. The advantage of choosing this material is also that, due to its density, the accessory holds its shape well and will serve for a long time, and the decor can be cut off and changed to a new one at will with the onset of next year. To make a felt, you only need to cut 2 identical parts of the sock and sew the halves together using a sewing machine or even by hand.

A tapestry or even a regular kitchen towel with a holiday theme can be used to make a New Year's sock. This will greatly simplify the task of decorating the accessory. If you choose the right pattern and pattern, a print with a New Year's theme will already flaunt on the toe.

What you need:

• the cloth;
• lining material (if necessary);
• threads with a needle or glue;
• paper and pencil for patterns.

Pay attention to the different sewing techniques for socks, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. The seam holding the two halves of the sock can be decorated with a beautiful braid, sewn with dense contrasting threads.You can also use a more complex pattern (for example, with an oblique seam) and different styles.

For example, socks made using the patchwork technique look beautiful and impressive. To make such an accessory, you will need several scraps of fabric with different textures and patterns, combining them together, you will get, indeed, an exclusive, eye-pleasing accessory. You can give free rein to imagination and combine incongruous! Patchwork always looks bright. And also one of the options for this technique are socks, sewn from pieces of various knitted things.

You can decorate felt socks in different ways, as materials for decoration often use yarn, braid, jute cord and various thematic accessories. Let's look at the most popular decoration methods used by needlewomen.

Snowflakes are a classic version of embroidery. Using thick or woolen threads, you can embroider the New Year's boot with snowflakes and patterns of various colors. Threads using lurex look beautiful, as well as textured yarn. Real craftswomen can embroider more complex patterns, for example, a snowman or a deer.

Satin bows will look great on New Year's socks. Ready-made bows can be bought at the store or made yourself using a ribbon. It is very easy to decorate a sock with bows beautifully and harmoniously! For example, the classic color combination is a green sock with white fur decor + bright red bows - a win-win for any festive item. For decorating socks with bows, you can also add, for example, a decorative bell.

It's that simple! You can purchase ready-made appliques with a thematic plot (angels, Christmas trees, winter accessories) and sew them onto your sock. Especially bright pictures look good on red and white items. You can also use felt patches that you previously made yourself.

The decor may also differ from the concept of socks placement and who you intend to give gifts to in such an original way. An interesting idea for a large family would be to make several socks of different sizes (each will have its own). And in the way you like to make the inscriptions "beloved dad", "golden child", "caring grandmother" or write the names of loved ones, on each sock its own, and even wishes.

Both socks, sewn and decorated in different styles, and conceptual combinations, made in the same style and color scheme, look great. For example, neutral gray-white and beige concepts look good.

Usually Christmas socks are placed over the fireplace, but you can think of another place for them. For example, using a cord, you can make an impromptu garland of socks and hang it over the bed, on the door, on the stair railings, and even decorate a New Year tree with them. New Year's wreaths decorated with embroidered socks as a decor look great. If you use felt boots, you can put them under the Christmas tree as an element of decoration.

When the socks are ready, do not forget to fill them with symbolic gifts. - sweets, tangerines and notes with pleasant wishes. Let each family member find a little fabulous present for himself! We hope our article was useful to you, and you will please yourself and your loved ones with wonderful gifts and a festive mood!

For information on how to choose and make do-it-yourself New Year's socks, see the next video.