I sewed something that doesn't suck!

My in-laws are really nice people. I know, you didn't expect me to say that. It's almost shocking that I'd say such a thing given how I'm prone to rant about any given noun. Really, though, my in-laws are very nice people. That's not to say they don't drive me crazy at times because they can. Oh how they can! Most of the time though the driving me crazy is just a result of their eagerness to please or belligerent hospitality. So imagine my surprise last year when my sister-in-law's boyfriend of three years (the first year he didn't come to Christmas, the second year he was fighting the [insert appropriate adjective here] fight in Iraq, last year being the third year) was assigned a Christmas stocking that had belonged to, not one but, TWO now deceased cats. Man, was that a long sentence. I don't know if my mother-in-law thought he wasn't going to last or what but it was just sad to see that stocking (my in-laws fill a stocking for everyone) with Sneakers written on one side and Zebo written on the other (okay, I don't remember which cats were on it but those are two of their previous cats so that's what I'm saying was on it) assigned to poor Joe. It also struck me as odd since she had gone and gotten those $1 stockings for my kids. Why not just get one more? Anyway, I'll get to the point. I told them that I was going to make Joe a Christmas stocking. I totally forgot about this until about two weeks ago. Oops. I call up my mother-in-law yesterday and ask some questions about the stockings and we (yes, we) both thought it might be nice to do stockings for all four of us recent additions that matched with the ones she had made for her kids/husband/self 30ish years ago. So I set off to Michael's. DEAR GOD! The line inside the store wrapped around the inside of the building. They also didn't have everything I wanted so I left. I dragged Red Todd Kidd to Joanne's Fabrics for red, white, and green felt (yes, I did tell the clerk I was making a sparkly Mexican flag). They didn't have exactly the right colors so I grabbed the closest match which was sparkly. I'm hoping my mother-in-law doesn't mind. I told RTK that it was perfect because we're all shiny and new. He didn't get the joke. Neither did my mom. After much frustration I made the stockings. I can't draw so I was hoping to trace cookie cutters but I forgot my cookie cutters are in storage. I had to free-hand all this stuff. The actual stocking pattern is my felt boots, though, I traced 'em. Hee-hee! RTK cut out the Christmas tree for me but other than that I did it all. I'm pretty proud of these considering that most projects that involve a sewing machine, scissors, glue AND me usually end in disaster. Merry Christmas everyone!