If you like to sew or quilt, you will love making this Christmas in July Advent Calendar. Grab your fabric scrap stash, embellishments and poly-fil and join me in this fun tutorial. You are on your way to making your own Patchwork Advent Calendar.
How to Make a Patchwork Advent Calendar
First you will need to select your fabrics. This is the fun part for me. For this version I chose non-traditional prints and threw in a little white muslin and red solids. It’s a good idea to use solids along with prints so the prints don’t get overwhelmingly busy. But other than that, the sky is the limit when choosing your fabrics.
I tore my fabric into strips that measured about 2 ½” x 10-12.” So pre cut’s like jelly rolls could be used for this. I know a lot of you like jelly rolls since some of you do not feel comfortable mixing prints. Also, they are convenient since they have been cut for you.
Next, sew all of the strips together. Now if you are not an experienced sewer or quilter, this step can be tricky. Start by placing two of the strips together with right sides facing and sew the long edges of the wrong sides together leaving a ½” seam allowance. Steam the seams open. Repeat this until all of your strips have been sewn together. This is what your fabric will look like on the other side.
When I was done sewing my strips together, I used Staz-on ink and some rubber stamps to stamp sentiments with on the white muslin. You can heat set this with an iron to prevent smudges.
I ended up with a piece of fabric that was about 14” x 20.” This was large enough for me to cut 25 3” and 2 ½” squares from which is the next step. Use a fabric marker and template to trace the squares. I traced twelve 3” square shapes and thirteen 2 ½” squares from the sewn fabrics for the pockets.
So here are my cut squares of fabric. You can see that I used the sewing machine and black thread to free form stitch across the squares and around the edges.
I used wool felt in green to cut tiny Christmas tree shapes from. I sewed the trees to a few of the larger squares leaving a 1 1/2 opening. I then stuffed the trees with poly-fil and continued sewing to create some dimensional applique.
And if you want, you can decorate your little trees with tiny crystals.
Ok, so now its time to add numbers. I used a Sizzix Die Cutting machine and number dies with some black canvas to make mine. I first fused webbing to one side of my black canvas (felt would work nicely here too) and then cut numbers with the canvas paper side up so that the numbers would be in the correct orientation once they were fused to the squares. Cut a set of number 1-25. Lay the squares out onto the surface of whatever you will be using as a backing. I used a white flour sack towel, purchased in a pack of three for about $3.50. This step is so that you can decide which numbers to fuse to which squares. I didn’t use numbers for the squares with the poly-fil trees.
Once your numbers are fused. Use the sewing machine to secure the numbers to the fabric. Place them on the flour sack again and use straight pins to hold them in place this time. Now you can sew them to the towel, leaving the top open to create little pockets. Finally its time to embellish your little heart away! I used bling (of course) and a few other trinkets and treasures from my stash.
Perfect! And there you have it- your very own patchwork advent calendar!
Live Life Creatively,
Melony
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