Gift Card Holder (In-the-Hoop)

The holiday season is upon us, and that means a few things. One, ‘tis the season of giving, and two, you really wish your Aunt Martha had given you a gift card instead of that pink kitten sweater. Well, for those of you deciding to leave the gift choosing to your recipients, a gift card is a perfect option. The only thing is they can sometimes be a little visually ... underwhelming. Yup, it’s a little plastic card. Yippee.

You can’t exactly gift wrap it. Putting it in a box feels a bit silly. Stuffing it down a big fluffy stocking might risk it getting lost. So how do you present your oh-so-thoughtful gift? Well, give it its own cute little stocking, perfect as a holder and even to hang on the tree!

Cut your printed templates down to a manageable size (if you can’t print them, you can hoop up a piece of paper and “stitch” the dielines, then cut out along the perforations to get your template).

Cut a piece of cutaway stabilizer for backing for each. Cut one piece of fabric for the front template (the one with the bumpy top) if you want your stocking to be all candy-cane colored I’d made it red. For your back template, you’re going to need two layers of fabric. I’ll explain why..

For the back piece, you’re going to want fabric on both the front and back so your stocking looks good on all sides, and so we can hide the hanging ribbon edge.

Take a piece of stabilizer, spray it with some spray adhesive, and smooth on the fabric color you want the “inside” of your stocking to be. Then spray the back of the stabilizer, and smooth on the fabric you want the “back” of your stocking to be. In my case, the back of my stocking is red (to match the front) and the inside is purple. You should now have a little sandwich of fabric with stabilizer in the middle. Lightly spray the back of your template, and place it on top.

Use spray adhesive to adhere together your top stocking piece too, so they’re both ready to cut out.

Carefully trim around the templates lines for both the front and the back piece of your stocking.

Once your stocking pieces are cut out, remove the paper template from the top.

Before we start stitching these two together, we need to stick our ribbon hanger on. Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to make a loop for hanging. Grab the back stocking piece (the one with fabric on the back and front) and pull up the top fabric and the stabilizer together at the upper right corner. Slide a bit of the raw edge of the ribbon inside, and then smooth it closed again. If it’s not sticking closed, you might need to add a small spray of adhesive to keep it shut.

Now you have two pieces ready. A top piece, with fabric on the top and stabilizer on the back, and a back piece, with fabric on both sides with a ribbon sandwiched in the middle.

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Hoop up a piece of tear-away stabilizer and we’re ready to stitch!

To start, a dieline will stitch. Spray the back of your top piece, and place it carefully inside the dieline. After that, a tack down will stitch around the edges, followed by all the inside elements, and finally a satin stitch border just across the top. After that top border has stitched, a dieline for the back piece will sew.

Once the back dieline has sewn, take your hoop off the machine (but don’t un-hoop it!) and flip it over. Spray the front side of the back piece (in my case, the purple side) just around the sides and bottom, and place it carefully inside the dieline. You may want to also tape down one edge of the ribbon to keep it out of the way.

Flip your hoop back over, and press on your stocking to make sure the back layer is secured. As long as your satin stitch border is white, like this one, you don’t need to worry about a bobbin change, but if you’re using a different color, be sure to match your bobbin to the outside border. Set your machine to sewing again, and it’ll sew a tack down and then a final satin stitch border to finish your stocking.

Once your design is done, carefully tear it free of the stabilizer.

Remove the small piece of tear-away stabilizer at the very top of your stocking, so it can be open to hold a snazzy gift card.

The finished stocking! It’s the perfect size to slip a gift card into, or fill with a few goodies and then hang on the tree.

Your thoughtful gift card now has a snazzy little holder you can make and customize for all those lucky people out there who get to raid Target or Best Buy instead of returning a pink sweater. As well as a swell holder, these little stockings make great ornaments all on their own, and are even better when filled with candy canes and yummy treats. Once the gift card is used, the stocking still makes a great keepsake ornament, handmade with love for all the Christmases to come!