DIY Christmas advent calendar

I made this calendar last year and I thought I'd throw up the tutorial for you to see.

The calendar is my version of this. You can probably tell by my handy work that I am not an expert seamstress.  I just go for it and most of the time don't even measure.

But I did keep track of what I was doing so if any of you lovely's wanted to recreate it you could.

Start with:

Background fabric~ 18.5 inches by 30 inches

Tree~ 16 inches by 14 inches 

Three strips of fabric~ 18.5 inches by 6.5

Once you cut out your strips fold them in half (hot dog style) with right sides touching and iron the edge.

Using a regular straight stitch sew the open ends closed.

Flip the tube of fabric inside out and iron again.

Pin them to the bottom of your background fabric.

Next I used a zig zag stitch to attach my tree and I added a little tree stump.

I really liked having striped fabric because it made creating the pockets much easier (especially for a girl who doesn't measure).   You will probably want to use a ruler to break up your pockets each of mine are 2 and 1/8th of an inch with more space on the side pockets for a seam allowance.

First I sewed across the bottom of all three strips. Next I sewed down in single lines that went through all three strips.

I chose purple felt for my backing because it was all that I had. I cut it to match my background materiel exactly. Now, with right sides facing, pin edges of both these pieces of fabric together so you can sew around the edges. I added giant rick rack for fun. Make sure to leave a few inches so you can turn your fabric right side in. Lastly, hand stitch the last few inches together. 

Now you can hand sew on your bells. 24 of course!

I bought gold paint and small number stencils and painted on numbers 1-24.

 Putting the dowel in the back was trial and error for me. First I made a loop that the dowel could slide into but then the calendar hung forward so finally I just cut right into the top like this:

 and attached large red grosgrain ribbon to either side.

 
Finally you will need to purchase 24 small ornaments. I had no trouble finding them at Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby also always has coupons for 40% off so I got all of my ornaments for 5 dollars. I painted some fabric gold and cut it out for a star and I hot glued on some small red rick rack for my tree. 

I used all scrap fabric so I really only bought the trimmings. 

Bells~1.27

Small rick rack~ 1.00

Large rick rack~1.50

Ornaments~5.00

Paint~1.36

Dowel~.67

Total cost: 11.00

(I used all my own fabric scraps so I didn't need to buy any.)

Well, there it is. If you want to see the list of printable activities that go with each day click HERE.

xoxo~Sophie