Mario Goomba Shoe Stocking

Make this super-easy no-sew Super Mario brothers stocking for your holiday! Nothing says Christmas like booting a Goomba from his shoe and using it to destroy him. Santa will reward you and everyone will marvel at this adorable iconic sock.

For this project you'll need:

• Colored craft felt: 1/2 yard black, sheets of green, red, pink, white
• Tacky glue or other adhesive (white glue will work just as well)
• Scissors
• Pen and paper to make a pattern

The stocking is one large back piece with the face on it, and the front part of the stocking is the shoe. So you'll need to make a large piece that can encompass the whole picture, a pattern of the face to clue onto it, and then a separate shoe piece to glue onto the back part and make the opening for your stocking.

Here's how to make a pattern for your Goomba (or Kuribo's) Shoe:

• Draw out a large-ish picture of your image. The really important thing to achieving maximum awesomeness with this project is to keep scale in mind. I took some pictures from the interwebs and measured the proportion of head-to-stocking. He has a really big head compared to the size of the shoe. So if you want a big stocking, be prepared to clear an entire wall for the size of this baby. (or, _{shameless self promotion}, just check out the Expandable Stocking)
• Cut out the whole shape around the edges
• To save yourself the heartache later, make an additional copy of this main pattern. Then you'll have one to use for the back piece, and you can cut out the more detailed one to use for the smaller, colored pieces. There is not a picture of this step, because the idea only just occurred to me after I needed it.
• Cut apart the drawing with all of the detail. This will become the pieces for the colored bits. Since I used black as a background color, his mustache, sideburns, hat brim and eye were all cut away from the face bit, to simply expose the color of the background, rather than applying an additional layer.
• Trim the smaller pieces so that you'll be able to get some nice space in between them all when you glue the fabric on. This makes it look like the whole thing is outlined like it does in the game.

Cut out the following pieces:

• Back piece in black from the large, un-cut pattern. This is the back of the stocking. Leave a bit of seam allowance around the edge of it so you can trim it all away nicely later.
• Entire shoe from black felt (to glue the green pieces onto). Also leave some seam allowance around the side of this piece
• Shoe details from green - the cuff and the main body of the shoe part) - Cut on the edge, leaving no seam allowance (referred to as "nsa" from here on out)
• Key from white (nsa)
• Face from pink (nsa)
• Hat from red (nsa)

As with all glues, work in a well-ventilated area and be careful NOT to to inhale the fumes.

This part is where the magic happens.

• Glue the face and hat pieces to the upper part of the back stocking, leaving a nice border around the pieces.
• Glue the shoe parts and key to the black front piece of the stocking.
• Smooth these out and let them dry. Mine got a bit wrinkly because I got overexcited. Don't let this happen to you!
• Finally, glue the front piece of the stocking to the back around the wide black edges and seam allowance. If you feel comfortable sewing, it could be good to sew around this edge too to reinforce it. You don't want all your goodies falling out!
• Seriously glue, staple or hand-sew a hang tag to the top of your new stocking.
• Let dry for a good long time. Once it's sturdy enough, you can trim down your outer edges to give it a nice, clean finish.

Make sure to leave out cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. This always encourages a little extra stocking-stuffing.

Have you been good this year?