Yes, sad as it may seem, we’re thinking about Christmas already, because we recently had a delivery of some new Christmas fabrics, Advent calendars and Christmas stockings from Makower.

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

I know there’s not much time to crochet this before Advent starts on Tuesday, but I just spotted this free crochet pattern on Rowan’s website to crochet an advent calendar.  It looks really simple – just lots of pockets with numbers on them, hung from a pretty hanger – for you to fill with whatever goodies you like.

Free Rowan crochet pattern for an unusual advent calendar

The pockets are actually felted and the numbers stitched with Rowan Shimmer

You can download the pattern here.

We’ve been getting ready for Christmas for a little while now and in the past few days we whipped up these advent calendars.

We love the idea that you can fill them with whatever treats you like, and they can be brought out from year to year and even passed down to the next generation eventually.

They’re dead easy to make too…

Each fabric panel contains the backing piece and the pocket pieces and is clearly marked where to cut and where to sew.

1. Cut out the backing piece.
2. Cut out the pocket pieces.  Pockets aren’t always singles.  Sometimes the pocket are in strips of 2, 3, 4 or 5 depending on the advent calendar design.  Pay close attention to the correct cutting lines indicated on the panel.
3. Iron over the seam allowances at the top of each pocket strip.
4. Stitch along the top edge.
5. Make box pleats between each pocket on a strip by bringing the sides together to meet on the dotted line and ironing.
   
6. Press over the other seam allowances at the sides and bottom of each pocket to enclose the pleat.
7. Pin each pocket and pocket strip in place on the backing piece and tack in place.
8. Stitch the pockets on to the backing piece.
9. Layer the calendar onto a piece of wadding and then onto a piece of christmassy fabric.  The back layer should have an allowance of an inch or two around the sides and bottom and 3 or 4 inches at the top.
10. Tack the 3 layers together.
11. Quilt the calendar by stitching along various parts of the design, e.g. around the edge of the sleigh or tree and around the edge of the whole calendar.
12. Fold the side and bottom edges of the christmassy fabric over and stitch to the front, to create a neat border.
13. Fold the top over to create a sleeve in which you can slide a pole to hang the calendar up.

You can buy the sleigh advent calendar, christmas tree advent calendar and christmas fabric from our shop.