Curtains that once hung on the walls of the Royal Family’s Sandringham Estate have been transformed into 25 unique Christmas stockings for a silent auction. The offcuts of golden patterned fabric, believed to have dressed a significant entertaining room at the King’s country retreat in Norfolk, will be put up for auction tomorrow.
Bidding starts at £250 and will run for 12 days until Friday, December 12. The stockings have been upcycled by the Dumfries House Sewing Bee, a community sewing group spearheaded by The King’s Foundation, which has been running weekly at the charity’s headquarters in Ayrshire, Scotland, since 2016.
It aims to bring together people with an interest in sewing to learn new skills, explore more sustainable ways of working, and become involved in their local community.
More than six hours of work went into creating each stocking, with The Sewing Bee using advanced skills and techniques such as hand embroidery, piping and seam matching to create the 25 stockings, representing Advent.
On each of the cuffs, The King’s Foundation’s logo has been embroidered, with dark piping providing a contrast to the light fabric. Each of the stockings is one of a kind, as they have been individually numbered and hand-stitched alongside the year.
Over the next 12 days, 24 of the stockings will be individually auctioned off in support of the Foundation, which provides opportunities for more than 15,000 students each year to learn practical heritage skills rooted in nature and tradition, helping them play an active role in their communities.
The final stocking, number 25, will be gifted to the King as a Christmas present from the Foundation.
Sarah McClymont, Lead Tutor for The King’s Foundation’s Future Textiles initiative, said: “This was such an exciting project for the Sewing Bee to work on. Being given the opportunity to work with such historically significant fabric was a real honour for them and they are so proud of how the stockings turned out.
“The Sewing Bee transforming the Sandringham curtains into 25 luxury Christmas stockings really demonstrates The King’s Foundation’s commitment to craftsmanship, responsible design, and sustainable fashion and textiles. We hope that whoever is lucky enough to win one of the stockings at auction will pass it down as a family heirloom to be treasured for decades to come.”
The Christmas auction is the third to be held by The King’s Foundation in recent years. In 2023, the charity created an exclusive range of kimono jackets from curtains which previously hung at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
In 2024, students from Highgrove Gardens’ furniture school crafted footstools, which were then upholstered using curtains from the same two residences.