17th November 2021
Make Your Own Advent Calendar
Make Your own Advent Calendar
One of Buttonbag’s most popular craft kits over the years has been our Make Your Own Advent Calendar Kit. As we unfortunately do not have any more this year, and we know people want to make one – especially if they have already made one for other children in the family, we thought we would provide the instructions here. We had our fabric bases printed with a grid that made it very simple to position the quickly and evenly. You could make a guide out of a piece of cardboard, or use a rule or even doit by eye. TOP TIP: For a blank tea-towel try a company that specialises in custom printing gifts for schools and organisations.
You will need:
- One blank or pale tea towel or fabric measuring approximately 50 x 80 cm
- Either 24 felt squares measuring 7.5 x 7.5 cm
- or 24 fabric squares measuring 8.5 x 8.5 cm
- More felt, or sticky-backed flet for letters and numbers – see template below
- Or sticky numbers/letters – often available in craft shops
- 2.5 metres rrick rack braid – optional
- Thread, or embroidery thread & needle kit
CLICK HERE FOR ALPHABET 2017 Advent template
Lay and pin all pockets in a neat grid on your plain fabric. Work from the bottom row upwards. Our pockets start 7 cm from the bottom, 6.2 mm from each side and we left 2 cm between each pocket and 3 cm between each row.
Use a 1cm running stitch and handsew all pockets with embroidery thread for a decorative finish.
Fabric pockets will need a 1 cm hem. Use an Iron to turn neatly and sew straight on to the fabric panel with thread (or machne stitch)
Use the template below to cut out letters and numbers. If you have sticky-backed felt you can simply peel and press on. If it is normal felt you will need to glue or sew.
Sew, or glue the ric-rac or other braid onto the calendar.
Fill the advent calendar pockets. We often used to break up a small jigsaw puzzle or a lego toy distributing the pieces accross the days.
Let the countdown begin!
