Tiny Christmas Stocking Favours

   Make these tiny stockings as favours for your Christmas dinner. Personally I find Christmas crackers to be disappointing these days, unless you make them yourself. They always feature the same things and frighten any dogs that might be waiting eagerly beside your seat for scraps. These stockings are far cuter, and just as festive. They're so easy to make, too! You just need some faux fur - I used scraps from my limited edition Christmas monster plushies - and some nice fabric - yet again, I used scraps from my monsters. Once you've got that all you need is something to fill it with. I particularly love the tiny boxes of Lindt Lindor, and the tiny boxes of Celebrations you can get around this time of the year. They're not as good as the big ones - nothing beats the big ones - but they give exactly the right amount for this situation.

   Draw a stocking shape on the back of your chosen fabric, then fold it over and stitch along the lines, leaving the top open. Cut around it and you should have an inside out sock. Turn it the right away out.

   Then take a strip of faux fur trim or fabric scraps that wrap around the top of the stocking once with a little left over. Your stocking will be the right way out, but your fur won't be. Turn the fur upside down so that the back of the fabric is facing out, then wrap it around the top of the stocking and sew the top edge down. When you get to the end of the fabric, stitch the two end pieces together, then flip the fur over so that it's added height to the stocking, and the fur is facing outwards.

   All you need to do then is fill the stockings with the desired contents and lay them on the table with the place cards. Things don't have to be difficult to make an impression. Alternatively you could put the knives and forks in them for dinner.