In the Autumn last year I took a notion to make my own advent calendar. I thought it would be a fairly easy and cheap project. It took a lot longer than anticipated to complete and I lost the rag with it a few times (resulting in some wonky stitching) but I'm pretty pleased with the result. I'll give some rough instructions on how I made it.
Materials: Large square of felt (1 meter sq), selection of felt material in a variety of colours, fabric glue, embroidery thread, needle, scissors, pins, dowling rod, ribbon, pen, sweeties.
1. First off I ordered a large sheet of felt off ebay. Approximately 1 meter square. This was this most expensive part and was about £6 with postage. You might get it cheaper if you shop around. I've since seen similar advent calendars made from hessian sacks that you can get for free from good coffee shops.
2. I folded a flap over the top and did a simple running stitch by hand. I intend to thread some dowling rod through this eventually so it'll keep its shape when hung. You could then thread some ribbon or cord through for hanging.
3. I have a fair amount of felt in my craft cupboard which I used to make the pockets and christmas embellishments. About 3 or 4 sheets of felt will make up the pockets but you could do this in any fabric you fancy. Gingham might be nice. I cut them into 24 similar sized rectangle shapes. I'm a bit slap dash so just did it by eye. Some are a bit bigger than others as a result! If you're a perfectionist use a ruler.
4. Now the tricky bit. For the 24 Christmas pictures I just drew them by hand on the back of some felt material, cut them out and stuck them onto the rectangle pockets with fabric glue. Make sure you arrange them so you've space to attach the numbers next. It was pretty tricky thinking up 24 Christmas things so I ended up with some random things like a toadstool and an owl.
5. Cutting out felt numbers accurately was way beyond my skill level so I managed to find some on ebay for a couple of pounds. Eventually I'd like my own die cutting machine but it's a pricey investment. I think I searched for 'felt advent calendar numbers' or something similar. I then stuck them on the felt pockets with fabric glue. I have no talent for sewing so prefer to use glue. If you have a machine or a steady hand and lots of patience you could sew them.
6. The last stage was by far the most frustrating. Again, if you have a sewing machine this probably wouldn't take you any time but I'm rubbish at sewing. Firstly I pinned the pockets onto the fabric sheet making sure the numbers were in a random order. Then I did a running stitch in white embroidery thread to attach them. This took a fair few hours over a fair few weeks and I got fairly fed up of it towards the end. You can just do it in front of the TV with a bottle of plonk and it makes it a bit less frustrating.
7. Then you have your finished product. Fill it with sweeties and use again and again.
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