I actually finished this advent last year but never got around to filling it in or really using it since it was finished around mid December. I had a small advent but you could never fit anything inside of it. the spaces were a little too small. I also wanted something a little bit more flexible, so that we could change up what we put in it as our activities each year. We have talked about doing an ornament each day to fill the tree, or what we did this year, picking an activity from our stash of ideas that fits into our schedule. I have been collecting advent pins for a while I love the calendars that feel homemade and loved… just a few from pintrest I had been admiring.
oh happy day a subtle revery
fry dog design cirkus lilla-a design
So I ended up combining a lot of different ideas and headed to the thrift store. I spent a few weeks digging through the racks to find 100% wool sweaters for my project. It took several trips and about 10$. I found around 7 sweaters and once I had them all I started felting them in the washer. Basically just threw them in the washer all together with soap and HOT water on the heavy cycle. Ran them through and dried them on high heat and ran them back through all of that all over again until they held an edge when they were cut. Make sure at this point your lay them flat and keep them that way for a bit, do not fold or ball them up in the corner or cutting them will be a bit more difficult than desired. I tried to find a large variation of textures and patterns so I ended up with a cable knit and a few ribbed solids and 2 wide striped sweaters and 1 patterned sweater.
Then it was time to figure out what shape each day would be I decided a paper bag style would work the best for us because it is a bit more flexible. For the days that just have an activity in them I stuff them with tissue paper to fluff up the bag so it doesn’t look empty and there is plenty of room for the days we have an ornament or something extra inside. To cut my pattern I just picked a size for the front and back bag ( roughly square) and measured around 3 sides to figure out how long to cut the 1 piece that is the sides and bottom of the bag. the straps were a bit harder. I wasn’t 100% sure how to hang them so I made 2 just incase I changed my mind. Then I found some sparkly yarn and started sewing things together. I wanted them to have a cozy feeling so I didn’t worry too much about how perfect the stitched were and I wanted for them to show. then I picked up a few sparkly pom poms and gift tags to label the dates and I was all done.
It turned out to be a great thing that I made 2 straps and didn’t sew them together. this year I decided to hang them a little bit differently and it was a lot easier to be able to move them around and just use a safety pin to keep them in place. The inside is filled with little cards that have activities, a few little treats or movies to watch.
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