True Trekkies will take issue with my slight misquote; however, grammarians will rejoice at my perfectly unsplit infinitive (perhaps even to the point that they will ignore “unsplit” not being a real word).
My friend Bill is a fan of Star Trek: TOS, and particularly of William Shatner. Over the years, I’ve bought him many books penned by Mr. S., as well as bobbleheads, action figures, and other paraphernalia. Some months ago, whilst rifling through my bookmarks, I found this link. I had originally saved it a few years ago, and finally decided it was high time I did something about it.
Panic very nearly set in when I clicked on the link to the McCall’s website found within the post, and discovered it no longer existed; luckily, my crafty packrat instincts had kicked in when I first read about the project, and I had downloaded the PDF pattern and instructions. With some felt, gold fabric paint, and about $2 worth of fleece, Bill would have his very own Star Trek stocking.
I chose Command Yellow (Gold?), natch – oh, so appropriate, given that his wage-slave hours are spent as a team leader – and found a silhouetted version of the insignia with a quick Google search. My insignia is made up of three pieces of felt: a black bottom layer; a smaller, yellow layer painted with two coats of gold fabric paint that required 24 hours to dry each time; and a black star on the very top.
And filled to the gills with all sorts of goodies!
I took a few liberties with the pattern, such as not lining it – though in hindsight this may have been helpful, since the paperback book I thoughtfully stuffed in it caused some rather unsightly bulges.
I made the delivery last week, which seemed a little early, but I wanted him to have the stocking for a Christmas decoration throughout December. For his part, he asked where I bought it (!), and now has it hanging at his desk, where several coworkers have asked where he got it. This might be tough to beat next year!
The Witty Child 