Christmas Advent Tutorial from Family Ever After

Hi! I’m Rach H, and I blog at Family Ever After. I am Lil Luna’s sewing contributor, and I love to sew!

Here’s a little bit about me… I am from South Dakota (my husband and I both grew up there). I have 4 sisters, and I love country music, sunflowers, clogging, and running. I went to college at BYU, where I majored in Family and Consumer Science
Education. I taught middle school sewing for a year. I’m now living my dream being a mom to
3. I’m very passionate about letting my kids “help” me do projects.
Basically, my blog is a big mish mash of things I love: sewing,
crafting, food, family, travel, gardening, pictures, and a big sewing
contest called Sew-vivor.

blog…rss…facebook…pinterest…twitter

I’m so thrilled that Kristyn asked me to guest post for Christmas in July. Here are a few questions she asked me to answer:

1 – What is your favorite holiday and why?

My favorite holiday is…. Christmas! Growing up in South Dakota, we almost always had a beautiful White Christmas. I treasure the memories with my family on that magical day.

2 – What is your favorite Christmas Tradition?

My favorite Christmas traditions…. are from my childhood, including sleepovers with my big sister on Christmas Eve, making Swedish pancakes, and making up a Christmas play to perform for our parents.

My all-time favorite Christmas movie is…. “White Christmas,” which we watched every Christmas night. “Holiday Inn” is a close second (both are old movies starring Bing Crosby).

The best present I’ve ever received…. Well, we got married on Dec. 20, so that was a pretty special gift. Another cool present was last year, my mom had every single one of our childhood pictures scanned onto several discs and made into digital form. What a big job! And such an awesome present!

5 – Why do you blog?

I blog because…. when we moved and my husband started a crazy busy job two summers ago, I decided to pass the time and motivate myself to get things done. So I began Family Ever After. It’s been a really fun journey, and my husband is the blog’s biggest fan, which makes blogging extra fun.

 Since I’m Lil Luna’s sewing contributor, I thought it would be fitting
to share the Christmas Advent tutorial that I did last year. I posted this on
my blog as a sew-along, and here it is for the first time in one
tutorial.

This beautiful calendar was sold at Pottery Barn a few years ago. They don’t sell it anymore, which is why I decided to make it. The original price was something like $150, which I thought was outrageous. It cost me roughly $20 to make this. But in all honesty, now I understand the high price. Why? Because it took me nearly 30 hours to make this!!! If I had known it would take me so long, there is no WAY I would have made it! I think I could have been just as satisfied with a store-bought calendar on 50% off, or a much easier homemade idea. (Ok, maybe not. I am pretty proud of it)! I really am so excited to have it, and to use with with my family for years to come. I’m just glad its done!!!

Part 1

 

Part 2

Time to design your pockets!

I used this tutorial for a lot of my ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I unpicked the zigzagging and re-sewed the edge over with a straight stitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. After all the squares are embroidered, iron interfacing to be back to protect your stitching.

Here’s my stack!

2. I forgot to take a picture, but for this step, you need to fold each pocket over 1/8 an inch and sew a straight stitch. This will protect the top edge of your pocket when you are taking objects in and out.3. Arrange the squares on your tree. Then pin those puppies so they stay put. This is a big job! I zig zag stitched mine, but if you’re feeling ambitious, you could hand sew them all. (Pretend the numbers aren’t here yet).

4. Now its time to add the numbers. There are several ways this can be done. I embroidered mine by back-stitching. I didn’t do a perfect job (i.e. some look like a 3rd grader could have done them, haha).

5. Time for the back layer. (It’s a different color- this felt was cheaper. It won’t matter at all).

First, I added a pocket to mine. This way I can store the pieces of paper that have our activities written on them. Next, I cut out my batting, using the back layer as my pattern. I used Christmas tree “snow” as my batting.

Here’s how it looks.

6. Now attach the batting to the back of the back layer. I did little pin tucks in a few places, then basted the edges together with my sewing machine.

7. Now, for the nerve-racking job. Place right sides together, and stitch around the tree. I followed the edge of my presser foot. Make sure to leave a large opening at the bottom so you can turn it right side out!

We’re sewing 3 layers together- front, back, and batting.

8. Now my sewing is done. Make sure you left a large opening! Clip your corners of the swirly parts of the tree, and turn right side out.

9. Make you star and tree stump. I sewed mine together, turned them right side out, stuffed with cotton, then top stitched.

(Remember top-stitched around this after stuffing it with batting).

10. Now we need to top stitch around the entire tree, while adding the tree stump, and closing up the bottom. Pin the bottom opening together, and layer the stump in there.

11. Final touches: Remove your basting stitches. Figure out a way to hang it… I can’t find my D-rings, so for now, I just hand-sewed a temporary hanger. Then, sew some cute snowflake buttons through all 3 layers (this will help keep things in place).

Holy Moly, it’s done!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s 56 inches tall, bigger than my 5 year old daughter!

If you’d like to see my list of advent activities, scroll to the bottom of this post!

Thanks for having me to celebrate with you, Kristyn!

xoxo, Rachel

Family Ever After…. see you there!

blog…rss…facebook…pinterest…twitter