Shsh, I have to whisper. My kids are following on this blog, too, and want to see all recent updates, so I can't speak right now. But we can't start December in a couple of days without talking about Adventcalendars. If you haven't started making one already, then it is high time you do. As I am not only the Queen of Crafts, but also the Queen of Last Minute Impro, I have a couple of tipps up my sleeve.
Well, maybe you are not as ridiculously ambitious as me, though. I grew up as a spoilt only child and my mother used to design a new advent calendar for me every year. Somehow all that care and attention has always stuck with me. And being a mother now myself, I can finally appreciate the time and effort that went into making all those beautiful Christmas memories. - So I resolved very early on that I would do the same for my children. A new advent calendar every year. *sigh* Or rather two, as there are two children...
As I said at the beginning - I can't give away this year's creations. But I can show you what I did last year. Despite having thought about the project from very early on, it was another last minute product.
Looking back I always wonder how I manage to get it
looking alright despite the time constraints etc. But it really was pretty easy. This advent calendar was made from a
ready-made Ikea curtain. Wilma already
came with tabs to hang it up from. I
cut the curtain to the needed size of the advent calendar,
hemming in the side and bottom, but leaving the tabs at the top. In order to make
pockets, I took some
white fabric,
cut it into strips and hemmed the strips of fabric. I used a
decorative stitch on my sewing machine and
contrasty red thread.
Then I simply sewed the bottoms of the strips onto the curtain. After that I sewed straight lines down from top to bottom of the curtain to create individual pockets. And then I filled the pockets with treats and stuck little number-stickers onto the pockets.
This advent calendar can be used again and again. You can hang it from a couple of nails against the wall or thread a branch of wood through the tabs. That would make it stretch nicely and avoid sagging.
While I am uploading pictures of a little project on flickr, let me give you a recommendation here today. One of my regular blog stops is this fantastic blog called Ikeahacker. Well, it does what it says on the tin: It shows crafty re-purpusing of Ikea items. These can be big projects like a cat litter in a cupboard or just a simple advent calendar made from a tab-top curtain. Yep - that sounds familiar, because yours truly has submitted her project for fellow Ikea hackers.
