Several months ago, I stumbled upon a Reddit post linking to Carmen Jacob’s Waistcoat Stockings and fell in love. I had been contemplating designing my own, and had even bought the yarn, but couldn’t bring myself to do it once I saw how perfect these were. Despite the fact that I didn’t know the stitch, I set out designing the colors for my Waistcoat Christmas Stockings.

I will warn you, this stitch is not for the faint of heart. While Carmen’s pattern itself it not difficult, it took me longer than I expected to feel comfortable with the waistcoat stitch. I have a video tutorial in the works, and will update to add it here when it is completed. The struggle was well worth it, however, as the finished product is just stunning. And, with a little bit of determination, they were completed within a week during my Thanksgiving holiday.

For these stockings, I used Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton yarn, which is 100% cotton and unbelievably soft. I got one ball of each of the following colors: Bright Green, Red, White Sparkle, Christmas II, Black, and Dove. The Black, Dove (gray), Bright Green, and Red were used in both stockings. The White Sparkle was used in the Snowflake Stocking, and the Christmas II is the white with green and red specks used in the Christmas Tree Stocking. After two stockings, I have plenty of yarn left in all colors.

Along with the written instructions and photos in Carmen’s pattern is a blank template for the color designs. I drew inspiration for mine from the few photos Carmen included, as well as some favorite Christmas motifs. If you are interested in them, excel versions can be downloaded here.

Red Snowflake Stocking

Green Christmas Tree Stocking

These files can also easily be edited to adapt your own colors and patterns. I added a few extra rows to the top part of my stocking to allow space for the designs I selected, and the excel files show the break at the heel with a black dotted line.

We may not have a fireplace, but our stockings are hanging and ready to be filled with some of our favorite sweets! Merry Christmas!