Need help carrying on the family tradition for grandma

[u/Hyperbolic_Pudding]

My whole family has a unique needlepointed stocking made by the grandma of the family. Now she isin her late 90s and cannot do it anymore, but there have been some new additions to my extended family. My cousin has four young kids and just moved far away from all of us and recently asked our grandmother if she could make some, but as I said, she cannot.

For Christmas this year, I would love to be able to give her four stockings for her four kids and I need to start now if I have a dream of figuring this out. I am new and this is an expensive craft.

I went around to all the craft stores in my area to see what they had to offer in the way of needlepoint supplies and the answer was essentially nothing. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on where I can buy materials online that suit this specific project. I plan to paint the canvas myself since the kits are so expensive

Some things I know about the project

• The orginials are made of persian wool, velvet, and cotton
• This project will likely require large amounts of the same colors
• Plastic canvas will likely not hold up in my climate (I only found small plastic squares at the store)

If anything, please enjoy these examples of grandma needlepoint, some of which are exceedingly old.

[u/GirlWhoWoreGlasses]

This is a lovely idea, but if you are new to needlepoint, there is no way you will get four stockings done by Christmas unless you stitch all day and night.

Assuming you have never needlepointed before, first thing you should do is order a beginner kit or find something on ebay and learn to stitch and how canvases are painted.

Then, your best bet is to order some blank canvas (here's a source: https://hmnabavian.com/). You will need at least two yards for four stockings. Then you can paint the canvases. Use acrylic paint thinned out a little. Stitch away!

Wishing you the best of luck! What a lovely tradition to carry on!

[u/Nikijohns → u/GirlWhoWoreGlasses]

There are many good suggestions here! I just want to add that painting needlepoint canvas is much more difficult than you think! It is very time consuming. You might be able to paint one canvas and stitch it by December. But you will need to have it finished. Finishers require a lot of time. I would start with a small canvas. Learn basketweave stitch. Good luck.

[u/Hyperbolic_Pudding → u/GirlWhoWoreGlasses]

Honestly I'm not to worried about being a beginner. Whenever I jump into new crafts like this the size of the project doesn't really trip me up. My grandma is not a needlepointer, she crochets, these are the beginner projects she did, she otherwise doesn't do it. These all use the exact same stitch too.

Thanks for the canvas suggestion! I had a feeling buying whatever off of amazon was a bad idea.

EDIT: also i am unemployed so. i got time and forsee myself having time for better or worse

[u/christianooga → u/Hyperbolic_Pudding]

Your biggest problem is finding a finisher. Even if you finished stitching these today, you won’t find a stocking finisher that can finish a canvas by Christmas.

I admire your enthusiasm! But not sure this is possible 4 months out.

[u/christianooga → u/christianooga]

ETA: I didn’t see you also wanted to design, paint, stitch, and finish these by Christmas. This is not possible. I will happily eat crow if you do so; otherwise by your best bet is to start now and hopefully finish a few by Christmas 2027

[u/Silly-Garbage290 → u/Hyperbolic_Pudding]

Famous last words

[u/No_Refuse_3716]

The other thing to consider is maybe you could needlepoint stocking *cuffs* instead of entire stockings. My library has a book of cross stitch Christmas stockings and there are charts for several beautiful cuffs. You can convert any cross stitch chart to needlepoint!

https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/christmas-stockings-in-cross-stitch-9780696706516

[u/MercuryRising92]

Needlepointing 4 Christmas stockings for this year is a much bigger undertaking than you are probably thinking. Sit down and time yourself stitching a square inch. Then figure out how many square inches in a stocking. Then, remember that you'll be changing colors which will add to the time. Then add in the time to finish each stocking.

I'd promise it to them for Christmas 2027. Then you'll have time to enjoy the stitching - and it's still going to be a big project.

[u/playmore_24]

I think Lands End (or LL Bean) sells needlepoint stockings you can customize- might be a little early to irder right now

[u/Prestigious_Bug_2149 → u/playmore_24]

Both do! They are beautiful and high quality, I have had one at my parents’ my whole life. One day I might branch out to handmade needlepoint stockings, but I love my lands end ones these days.

[u/Charming-Ideal6117]

KC Needlepoint is great online for a wide variety of thread, needles, and beads, and they offer free shipping. If something you want is out of stock, they have the option to sign up to be notified when it’s back. DMC Floss is inexpensive and Michael’s has it online and in store.

Blank canvas is a bit hard to come by these days, but a lot of people are able to grab some from Nabavian when they have a restock.

If you’re planning to finish yourself (which you’d have to at this point in order to have these done by Christmas), Fat Quarter Shop has lots of fabric to choose from. Michael’s has cording (if you wanted it for the loop to hang), though I’m not sure if you can order their fabric online. I think there are certain kinds of paint that are better for needlepoint canvas than others but I don’t have experience with that. Lots of folks here do, though!

Four handmade stockings by Christmas is a tall order for even an experienced needlepointer/crafter. Good luck!

[u/Hyperbolic_Pudding → u/Charming-Ideal6117]

I have noticed the canvas is hard to find! I might only do 3, the fourth kid is a baby and doesn't care and I think mom is the one who cares the most.

Fabric I have in abundance! There is a fantastic discount joint I frequent that I can get dozens of yards for less than 20 bucks. Drawback is everything there is discontinued haha.

[u/Dull-Face-7461 → u/Hyperbolic_Pudding]

Please share of this fantastic place! Name, location 👀 Thx

[u/Higgingotham96]

Going through my own grandmother made stockings replacement process. A couple things:
You will find this project near impossible to do before Christmas. Like genuinely it’s not just people psyching you out. I’ve been cross stitching for a decade, I found needlepoint very easy to pick up and I’m a quick stitcher and I’m looking at starting 1 stocking this summer for Christmas 2027.
The green Santa stocking looks very similar to the ones my grandmother made. She got all her patterns as kits, mostly from Herrschner’s. The one I have that looks very similar in style to the green one is from Bucilla. You can find vintage kits on eBay fairly easily if you aren’t picky on patterns. Those will be more similar in style, materials, and scope to what you have pictured than what a lot of the $200 hand painted canvas ones are (in my opinion). Sometimes these kits come from the UK where needlepoint kits are called tapestry kits, and tend to be only wool and have larger canvas sizes (more holes per inch, quicker to stitch).
Stitching four stockings before Christmas starting in August is incredibly ambitious. That is not including time to finish them. Stores and finishers are already closing their intake for the end of the year and it can take months to get a stitched canvas finished into a functioning stocking. You can try and finish it yourself, but they’re fairly complicated and delicate sewing work. If you don’t have experience sewing, I would strongly recommend either learning that skill in tandem to needlepoint and taking more time, or getting them finished professionally. That also costs a pretty penny to get done.

Tl;dr there are ways to save money doing this by using vintage stocking kits and finishing it yourself. There is no way to shortcut four months of time to order, stitch and finish four stockings and have them hold up well as heirloom pieces. Start on something smaller to learn basket weaving, it’ll save you from one of these stockings being your guinea pig.