My mother made velvet stockings for all of our family (12 siblings, well, 11 had stockings since my youngest brother died before he would have had a Christmas) to match the stockings her mother had made for her family. My mother had a maiden aunt that lived with their family and worked as a dress maker. She would bring home scraps of material, including velvet. From the scraps brought home by Great Aunt Elise, stockings were made for their family. Mother made stockings for us when I was a baby, so mine was the first one made (all the 7 older siblings had some type of stocking already). My mother told me that the fabric for my stocking (the black one) was leftover from the fabric grandma used to make her (my mother's) stocking. The scraps for the decoration was from Great Aunt Elise. When I asked Mother from the pattern so I could continue the tradition, she sent me the patterns and a baggie of scraps which I used in addition to my own scraps to make stockings for my husband and children. My husband was skeptical of multiple colors of stockings, but he conceded as long as he had a red one - he'd always had a red stocking. So, I made his with everything in as traditional a color as I could - white lining, green tree, black engine.
Going from left to right, the stockings go up by age plus my husband's, mine and my sister, Emerald's. They are lined with a contrasting color of satin type fabric (costume satin, probably) - the same color as their name which is embroidered as the train's steam. Decorations are done with beads, sequins, fabric, and ribbons. Rickrack or some kind of trim goes around the top opening. Jingle bells are sewn to dangle with a crocheted chain stitch of embroidery floss. Christmas trees, animals, bells and trains are all hand appliqued. All time consuming, but worth it.
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