Brittany Jones, a student in the UCA Honors College, said the idea is to get into the Guinness Book of World Records and make Christmas happy for needy children. "Some friends and I were just talking one day about how cool it would be to break a world record," Jones said. "I just started doing a little bit of research online looking for things to do ... so much of it was physical stuff, and none of us have physical talents," she said.
She came up with the idea of the world's largest Christmas stocking. "The Honors College really jumped on board first. They loved it and got behind me and now we have about 30 groups that are helping out," Jones said. The items will be distributed to the Arkansas branches of Toys for Tots, Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club and Salvation Army's Angel Tree.
The children affected by hurricanes Rita and Katrina will also be remembered. The stocking will be 40 feet tall and 20 feet across from heel to toe, with a circumference of nearly 30 feet. This would allegedly break the current world-record holder by 1,000 cubic feet. Jones said students are already hunched over sewing machines and the stocking is growing. "We're doing big sections right now. Family and Consumer Sciences [department] has a big sewing room.
We've also been working on the racquetball courts. It's twice the size of a racquetball court right now," she said. What does it take to make the largest stocking in the world? The supplies include 25 yards of felt; 500 yards of ribbon; 120 yards of fleece; 40 yards of cotton; 15 spools of thread; 100 sticks of hot glue; half gallon of fabric paint; 50 feet of Velcro; and one 23-foot zipper.
Not every store has a 23-foot zipper for sale. "I ordered it from a company in New York," Jones said. Jones said the fabric itself weighs 70 pounds. "We won't fill it while it's hanging, because it would be too heavy. We will take it down and fill it through the zipper," she said.
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