There are many ways to create your own advent calendar. One slightly more time consuming way is a hand-sewn version. For this year I thought little felt envelopes would be cute. Plus, felt is cheap and easy to come by.
Materials
Red Felt
White Felt
Red Thread
Stamp and Stamp Pad (Optional)
Velcro dots (Optional)
Directions
- Cut the red felt into a 18″ x 28″ piece.
- Cut the white felt into 24 7.5″ x 4″ rectangles.
- On each of the 24 white rectangle measure 2″ down from the center of one of the short sides and draw a horizontal line. From the center of the top draw one line down each side to the edges of the horizontal line and cut, this will be the envelope “flap”.
- Fold 2.5″ of the rectangle in half, this should leave .5″ between the doubled fabric and the horizontal line. This will be the envelope opening itself.
- Using your needle and red thread sew the doubled fabric, leaving the stitches about .25″ apart so that they do not appear crowded.
- Before you continue to sew the envelope flap, fold the flap down so you can sew the edges of the flap down to the envelope, otherwise the flap will stay all the way open. Once that is done, sew the flap the same as the rest.
- Once you have all 24 envelopes done, place each envelopes 1″ apart from each other in a 5 x 5 configuration, leaving the middle space open (or you can make another envelope and make that the 25th).
- To put them onto the large piece sew the inside of each envelope onto the red felt in it’s spot.
*Steps after 8 are optional*
9. If you chose to make the 24 envelopes you will have an extra space. You can do whatever you like here, I simply using a stamp and white paint to put a little something extra in that space.
10. Numbers are the real tricky part but they’re kind of necessary in most cases. What I chose to do is use velcro dots and create little felt numbers. Other options include embroidering numbers, buying numbers pre-made that you can sew onto each one, etc.
Elora Milan 