Introduction: Glowing Christmas Stocking With Fairy Lights

By GellaCraft
About: I'm a digital artist/crafter/maker who likes electronics and sewing. I used to run the blog Soft Circuit Saturdays, which is now part of my site GellaCraft - dedicated to techy crafts, costuming, and art.

Add some glow to your holiday stockings with some fairy lights/string lights. This is a quick and easy project that requires only a few materials.

This is the first in my Glowing Christmas Stocking series, check out the Glowing Christmas Stocking with EL Wire and Glowing Christmas Stocking with LilyPad LilyTiny projects for even more holiday crafting ideas.

Materials Needed:

  • Christmas stocking with outline or image to trace (I found this great reindeer stocking at my local craft store)
  • Fairy Lights/String Lights (I got mine from SparkFun, but you can find online, craft stores, or department stores)
  • Batteries (if not included with the string lights)
  • Fray check or clear nail polish
  • Needle
  • Clear/invisible sewing thread
  • Scissors
  • Hot glue gun and glue
  • Optional: Velcro to attach battery holder

While not covered in this tutorial, you can also swap out the battery holder for a 5V wall adapter if you'd like to save the effort of needing to replace the batteries. You'll need to strip and solder the wires and know how to choose the appropriate hardware.

Step 1: Prep Stocking and String Lights

Begin by cutting a small hole through the bottom back of the stocking and at the bottom of the silhouette or outline on the front of the stocking to feed the string of lights through. The battery back will stay hidden on the back of the stocking.

Carefully feed the string of lights through both holes so the length of workable string lights is on the front of the stocking. Seal the edges of the holes with fray check or clear nail polish to keep the fabric from fraying.

Step 2: Stitching Fairy Lights

Using invisible thread, carefully whip stitch around the string lights along the edge of the design to secure. If the spacing between the lights is too long for your design, you can carefully bend the extra wire on itself to reduce the distance between lights. For this design, I kept the original spacing.

As you work along the design, adjust the LEDs on the string so that they point upwards. The wiring is pliable enough that you can bend it around sharp corners and curves easily.

Step 3: Finishing Touches

Once you've stitched around the design, feed any remaining string length back through the holes to the back of the stocking. Trim the wires and glue to the back of the stocking, making sure to leave a little slack for when the stocking is full of presents.

Finally, attach the battery holder to the stocking with some velcro. This step may not be necessary, depending on the model of battery holder you have. The cover on the one I used for this project needs to be unscrewed, so attaching with velcro makes it easy to detach and access.

When everything is done, switch it on and enjoy!