Felt Advent Calendar

I've been doing the Advent Calendar Sew-Along with Homemade by Jill, albeit a little (okay, a lot) behind her schedule.

Overall, I'm okay with how it's turning out. I'm going to wait to bind the edges until I get a sewing machine, and the ornaments sure turned out cute. You can definitely tell which ones I started out with though - I learned how to blanket stitch for this project, and the ones I completed at the end, although more complicated, look nicer because of the confidence of my stitches.

The pockets should be embroidered with the numbers. I'd finished about 1/3 of the sewing when my OCD took over. I didn't like the way the stitches looked, especially on the curvier numbers, like the 3 and the 8. I ripped out all of my stitches, thinking my handwriting looks better than that! And the bell went off. I had to go to JoAnn's to pick up some buttons for the baby cardigan, so I swung by the crafting aisle and picked up a white fabric paint pen. In about half the time it took me to sew those 1/3 squares, I had all of the squares painted and sitting to dry. The only way the pockets could look better is if I had used a better quality felt.

I think this white mitten is my favorite.

Or maybe the peppermint.

I don't normally work with felt, or embroidery floss. Everything from this project I had to buy from scratch, which is why mine aren't as colorful as I'd like.

Items purchased:

2 bags assorted felt - red, green, white and black (Dollar General) - these are not recommended. I used these on the pockets, which are kind of flimsy. There is a definite difference in the quality of this felt and the ones I bought elsewhere. I might re-do the pockets at another time.

2 large pieces of felt - white, green (Michael's, AC Moore)

Assorted smaller rectangles of felt - brown, yellow, glitter white (Michael's, JoAnn's)

Green, white and red embroidery thread (AC Moore)

Red beads (AC Moore)
White paint pen (JoAnn's)

Red and green ribbon (Michael's)

Items owned:

Dowel (left over from Thanksgiving Tree project)

Black embroidery thread

This post will be linked at:







Pictures are also posted on the Homemade by You flikr page.