Christmas advent calendar tutorial

Call it nesting but... I started working on Christmas projects in JULY!!! My baby is due in the beginning of November and I thought it was important to get a head start on all things holiday.  I know how much of a zombie I am those first few months and I didn't want Christmas/Holiday traditions be the thing that was just accidentally forgotten.

So here it 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 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.)

Events for days 1-24:

Thursday December 1^st: Put our gift to Jesus under the tree (whenever we are serving or doing something kind we write it down and it goes in our gift to Jesus that stays under the tree all month)
Friday December 2^nd: Listen to Christmas music
Saturday December 3^rd: Go visit Temple Square

Sunday December 4^th: Make hot chocolate and stir with candy canes 
Monday December 5^th: Make a gift for Grandparents

Tuesday December 6^th: Make the house smell like Christmas 
Wednesday December 7^th: Read a Christmas Story Book 
Thursday December 8^th: Wrap Christmas Gifts for Grandparents
Friday December 9^th: Make a new Christmas Decoration 
Saturday December 10^th: Color a Christmas picture 
Sunday December 11^th: Watch a Christmas movie and eat popcorn

Monday December 12^th: Elf some people in your neighborhood 
Tuesday December 13^th: Build a snowman or hang up paper snowflakes 
Wednesday December 14^th: Go out for a Christmas treat 
Thursday December 15^th: Do something nice for someone 
Friday December 16^th: Drive around and look for Christmas lights 
Saturday December 17^th: Do service for someone in need 
Sunday December 18^th: Make and decorate cookies 
Monday December 19^th: Call a loved one
Tuesday December 20^th: Go caroling and drop off treats to neighbors/friends 
Wednesday December 21^st: Read a story or watch a movie about the birth of Baby Jesus 
Thursday December 22^nd: Write letters for Santa Clause 
Friday December 23^rd: Read "The Night Before Christmas"

Saturday December 24^th: Act out the Nativity

Well, there you go! Is anyone else out there crazy like me and creating holiday decorations before summer is even over?

xoxo~Sophie

Spring green wreath

 This project is really simple all you need is

Glue gun

Sewing machine (or you can hand stitch)

Green thread

Green fabric 1/2 yard

Green felt 1/2 yard

Wreath 

I got my spring green fabric from the sale fabric section at Walmart (1.50 a yard)

You can also find felt almost anywhere for a good price as well.

My thread was 2.00 and I got the wreath from Dollar Tree (I was surprised how big it was).

Total cost:

5 dollars

1) The most time consuming part of this project is the cutting.

I cut 36 leaves out of felt and 36 leaves out of regular fabric. The leaves are 4 inches by 2 and a half inches. 

2) Sew a straight line down each of your leaves attaching the a felt leaf with a fabric leaf.

3) Using your hot glue gun attach the leaves felt side down to your wreath. I glued in clusters of three. First I glued two leaves on the sides then one in the middle and continued in that pattern all the way around.

Easy... CHECK 

Thrifty... CHECK

~Sophie

Sophie's Tip: If you can't find a wreath at the dollar store then check for an old wreath at a thrift store that could use a make over OR just head over to JoAnns or Hobby Lobby with one of their ever present 50% off coupons!

my "new" old mirror

This mirror was 3.00 at DI

but a very unfortunate cream yellow color.

It looked old and dusty...

A good cleaning and a 3.00 can of grey spray paint later and it's my new favorite wall hanging.

Sophie's Tip: Spray paint rocks! the end.

domestic love pillows

"domestic love pillows" is what our husbands called the project we spent all day yesterday working on:

(The letters are not sewn on yet.)

Sophie and Amy

We made the entire pillow from scatch, we even hand picked the cotton stuffing....

ok that's a lie...

but the rest of it we made!

Amy was inspired by this esty shop full of fabulous things but a little out of our ideal price range. This project cost less than ten dollars!

Sophie's Tip: Adding felt aplique to a pillow is easy. I suggest two ways:

1. Sewing the felt on with a machine using the zig zag stitch. The stitch moves slower than a strait stitch and is forgiving if you make mistakes.

2: Glue your felt on with Fabri Tac, let it dry over night then hand stitch around your letters.

             

Eden's room round 2

Eden's room is so fun. I love decorating it because everything in it is bright and cheery. I had the idea to do this over the crib pom pom party thing in our last place but didn't know how to put it all together. I found 3M hooks that won't leave holes in my ceiling so I was all set to finish my idea in our new house. I just reworked the Chinese lanterns with the big colorful tissue pom poms we made for Eden's birthday party.
The block letters were 2 dollars each from Joanns and I painted them the colors I wanted. (Click on my nursery posts to see where I got inspired for this cute off centered idea:)

I found these wooden blocks for 2.50 in Target's dollar section!

Click HERE to see the original room.

It is fun to start over and try to recreate a space. I am still not quite finished with the shelves on the other side of the room but pictures will come soon.

This room is all budget friendly. I mean really budget friendly... just proof again that you don't need to spend a lot of money to create a fun space.

4 calling birds... (well, more like 8)

First I cut out these cuties.

Then I looped 3 inches of ribbon.

Then I put right sides facing eachother...

And pinned the ribbon on the inside.

Next sew right along the outside keeping the tail open.

These birds are awesome because my one year old can hold them and love them and not break or destroy them!

I stuffed them and then did a blind stitch on the tail.

Add some buttons or beads for eyes and you're all done!

PS~I found my cute Holiday fabric at Jo Anns:)

Merry and bright

I found these chairs at DI (thrift) for 5 dollars each!

I love the rustic wood but I can't help thinking how awesome they would look painted a bright color.

The pillows actually aren't pillows at all. They are place mats bought at Tai Pan for 3 dollars each and I stuffed them. They match our tree skirt!

Mommy's stocking...

Daddy's stocking...

                       

Baby's stocking...

Step one: I took a dollar store stocking that we used last year and traced around it on a double layer of felt.

Step two: I cut out around the trace leaving an extra half inch or so.

Step three: I pulled out all kinds of scrap fabric and trimming.

Step four: I added the trimming and sewed it on to one side of the stocking.

Step five: with the right sides of the fabric facing each other I sewed the stocking together.

Step six: I sewed the trimming on the top.

Step seven: I cut out a strip of felt with angles at the ends
Step eight:  I sewed a piece of red ribbon down the center.

Step nine: With angled ends touching I attached my loop to the inside seam of the stocking.

Hooray!

I was a little intimidated to start this project, I had high hopes and wasn't sure I could reach them.... I'm so glad I tried.  It really feels good to make something completely yourself.