Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Today I'm Showing Off My Handiwork.

I finished my second advent calendar on Sunday and gave it to my parents and at-home siblings.  Again, I forgot to get a picture before giving it away, but I managed to get some pics yesterday after they'd hung it up and taken some of the gifts out.  But you can still get the general idea.  I will continue working on the last one - ours.  We'll just use it starting next year. 













Here's the simplified instructions for how it was done.  I started out with 4x4 squares of felt and then cut out the shapes I wanted for each picture.  I used a teensy bit of fabric glue to hold the shapes on the squares.  That glue is a pain to get the needle through!  Then I embroidered all over the place!  That was the most enjoyable part.  When the squares were completed, I ironed fusible interfacing on the backs to make sure my stitching lasts a long time.  After that, I laid them out to see which order they looked best, measuring to see how much felt I would need to accommodate them.  Then I cut out a large piece of felt to be the back and hand stitched each square onto that.  I think that was the most difficult part.  It's so hard to make sure they're all straight!  Even with a ruler.  I ordered the felt numbers from Deb, a seller on etsy, and stitched those under each square.  I left a 3" allowance on the top so I could sew a dowel into the top to keep it all hanging nice (though the packages still add weight and bulkiness).  Then you can just hang it on a two-headed hook or screw some hooks into each end of the dowel, through which you can attach cord.  It sounds so simple typed out.  And actually, it really is.  Time-consuming, yes.  But simple.  My decision to make three of these blew simple straight out of the water though.  :D

So much work.  But so much fun!  Thank you so much to Abby, at A Feathered Nest for the inspiration!

14 comments:

Malayka said...

How cute! I always start these things and then loose motivation half way through, ha ha I have way too many half started projects lying around! Oh I love your Anne of Green Gables quote at the beginning. I used to read all those books when I was young, funny how timeless they are. Thank you for your sweet comment :)

SZM said...

Wow! I am impressed!

Amy said...

And so adorable!!! Turned out fabulous! Good job.

Eat To Live said...

What a sweet thing for you to do. I hope your siblings appreciated alll the hard work you put into this. It looks GREAT by the way.

Vicky said...

Very beautiful. Well done. x

Saimi said...

How cute and crafty is that!! Nice job, I love how each pocket is different and that hand stitching is amazing!!

Rachel said...

That is beautiful! Great job!

MommyMert said...

Wow. Way awesome.

mun said...

I just love your advent calendar especially those pictures on the 4x4 squares. How did you ever manage to come up with so many cute pictures - so creative! what is the penguin holding in its right flipper?

Liz Mays said...

It turned out super cute, and I guess I could see that getting them to be level would be tricky!

Anonymous said...

Awww, you are so crafty. I need to be like you.

An Apel a Day said...

This turned out really good!!! I love it!

The Rantings of a Drama Queen's Mum said...

That came out really cute.

Charlotte (Life's a Charm!) said...

WOW! and WOW! They turned out really amazing and I bet the recipients were really impressed and appreciated your hard work.