This year’s advent calendars are certain to be popular. In fact we’ve sold several already.  What you get is a panel with the calendar printed on one side and pocket pieces on the other.  You cut the pocket pieces out and sew them on to correct place on the calendar.  Everything is clearly marked where to cut and where to sew.  You can then put some wadding and a backing piece of Christmas fabric on and voila!  All you need to do is hang it and fill the pockets with treats for your kids (or even yourself )

See our post from last year for more details on how to make advent calendars from these sorts of panels.

The first design features a cheerful snowman with a glittering night sky behind.

Snowman Advent Calendar

And the second is a stack of Christmas presents on a cream background with gold stars.

Christmas Presents Advent Calendar

We’ve also got some Christmas Stockings this year too.  These are even easier to make.  On the panel there are two stocking shapes to cut out.  One shape features a snowman, the other Father Christmas.  If you want to make one stocking, just sew the two shapes together.  If you want to make two stockings then buy some additional Christmas fabric and back the panel pieces with that instead.  They could be lined and quilted if you wanted, but if you don’t feel confident enough to do that, they they’d work just as they are!

Make some Christmas stockings

Hooty and Tweet

Lesley wrote:

“I’m just a novice at the moment and still getting to grips with my sewing machine, so they don’t look quite like the examples on the packet, and they’re a bit squint in places, but my friend loves them and I’m quite pleased with them too.”

I think they’re great!  You can make your own owls with the Melly and Me pattern available in our shop

California Dreamin' by Jenean Morrison Jelly Roll

This jelly roll contains just 16 strips, so you’d need two or three to make a quilt.  However there are other uses for a jelly roll, such as wall hangings, purses, bags, book covers…

Jenean Morrison’s own blog has some lovely pictures of items people have made from her fabric.

Kaffe Fassett Jelly Roll

This design roll (jelly roll) contains a selection of Kaffe Fassett fabrics cut in to 2.5″ strips.  They contrast very well with some of the other Kaffe Fassett fabrics we have in stock.

This brand new design roll contains 26 strips of Amy Butler fabric from her “Love” collection, cut in to 2.5″ strips and 44″ long.  It’s available from our shop for £21.

Amy Butler Design Roll from her Love Collection

If you’ve not made a quilt before but fancy trying it, then using a jelly roll would be a great way to start. Here are a couple of examples from a book called Jelly Roll Quilts: The Perfect Guide to Making the Most of the Latest Strip Rolls by Pam and Nicky Lintott.

Bars of Gold from Pam and Nicky Lintott’s Jelly Roll book

Sparkling Gem Stones

In these kits you will get a 100% cotton tote bag which has been pre-printed with a particular design, embroidery threads and instructions on how to embroider over the printed design using different embroidery stitches.  You don’t need to an expert in embroidery and in fact, this would be a lovely project for a beginner.

The kits are just £5.99 and available on our website.

You can browse all the new Melly and Me patterns on our shop website.

For tips on making some of the toys, Melly and Me’s blog is worth a visit.  They also add pictures of their toys in different fabrics which help to inspire.

Little Santa Sack

For this bag we used the Classic Stripe and Classic Scroll Christmas fabrics.

It has an oval shaped base, which has been stiffened, so that the big will sit nicely. The sides of the bag were made by sandwiching a piece of thin wadding with the two pieces of fabric.  This was then quilted in a simple grid pattern.  It was attached to the base piece and sewn up the back to form the bag.

The top can be folded over to show the contrasting inner fabric.  The wadding was smaller than the actual fabric, so it actually stops 5 or 6 cm short of the top of the bag.  This means that the part you fold over isn’t padded and therefore folds over better.  We put a coordinating tie around it and fixed with a loop at the back, under the fold, so that it didn’t fall off.

If you try making your own “santa sakc” like this, do let us know.  We’d love to see your own version!

Phoebe by Melly and Me

Made with fabric from our stash, she was very quick and easy to make and I’m just delighted with how she turned out!  I think that a collection of Melly and Me toys might be beginning

If you’d like to make Phoebe, then you can get the Melly and Me pattern here.

Bonzer by Melly and Me

He’s so cuddly, but you could equally fill him with beans or rice and use him as a doorstop or bookend.

If you want to make your own then you can get the pattern here for just £6.85.