Advent Calendar: How to Make One

I love an Advent calendar.  This year I decided our nieces were old enough to "get" it so I made them (and our nephew) Advent calendars that had stockings of fun for each day.

Before I get into the nitty gritty, let me first say, that Mr. and I got this Advent calendar from our home away from home, David's Tea:

It is a new tea every day.  It is fab.

Now that that is over with, let's move on to "How to Make an Advent Calendar".

If you aren't aware, there are 24 gifts in an Advent calendar.  One is opened each day starting on December 1 and ending December 24. 

1.  Make a stocking template.  

I made two, one for a really small stocking and one for a slightly bigger one.  I did these free hand, cut them out of computer paper and used them as you would a pattern.  I did 17 small stockings and 7 slightly bigger ones for each calendar.

When you're making your template, remember to leave extra area to account for the seam.

2.  Cut out all of your stockings.  You will need enough material for 24 outer stockings and 24 liners.

Remember when cutting to flip the pattern for half of the stockings so you don't end up with all fronts of your stockings and no backs.

This was the most time-consuming part because I was making two of these.  So that is 48 stockings * 2 outsides * 2 liners = 192 stockings.  Yikes!  Fortunately, Mr. stepped it up and helped me on this.

I used Christmasy material I got from Etsy as the outside.  It was just regular cotton.  And I used white flannel for the linings.

3.  Cut ribbon a few inches long to make the loops for the stockings to hang from.  Melt the ends to prevent fraying.  Pin these loops to the right side of the liner stocking which faces right so that your stockings hang facing right and the loop is in the back.  

Make sure to account for the side seam so, assuming about a 5/8 inch seam, put the loop about an inch from the left.  Check that your ribbon has enough length for both the loop and for about a 1/2 inch to hang unseen in the stocking seam.

Here is a visual:

4.  Match the lining of each side of the stocking to its outside piece so that they are right sides together.

Pin across the top of the stocking.

5. Sew across the top.

I did about a 5/8 inch seam here.  Really this is all free-hand and home-made, so I didn't try to get every stocking exactly the same because that would be madness.

6. Trim the excess fabric across the top.  DON'T cut the ribbon.  It will hang out of the seam as you can see in the pic below.

I left about 1/4 inch seam.


7. Open up the stockings.  Pin right sides together.  Flannel to flannel.  Cotton to cotton.

8. Sew around the entire circumference of the stocking leaving about 2 inches unsewn.

I chose to leave the open part on the bottom of the flannel lining where it wouldn't be seen.


9.  Trim the seams and excess string.

Again, I only left a tiny amount of the seam because I wanted to reduce bulk.

10.  Flip the stocking through the hole so that the right side is out.

11.  Hand sew the hole shut.


12.  Push the flannel into the cotton so you have stocking #1.  Now repeat 23 times.


13.  When all your stockings are completed, make the long string to hang them from.

Start far enough in where you will have enough slack to hang up the calendar (a couple of feet maybe) and pin pieces of ribbon around 6-7 inches in length to the string, centering them.  They should be more or less evenly spaced.

Leave the same amount of string at the final end as the first end after all 24 are pinned.  Cut and melt the ends to prevent fraying.

Be careful about your string twisting.

I used 1/4 inch ric rac but you could really use whatever you want.

14.  Sew the ribbon to the ric rac.


15.  Hot glue your numbers to the ribbon/ string to hide the stitches.

I bought these bingo numbers off of Amazon.  I painted the raised edges white so they would stand out.

16.  Tie all of your stockings to the calendar by putting the ribbons through each loop and knotting.

17.  Fill with delights!  Then hang!

Voila!

(These are attached to the chairs for a 15 minute photo session.  If these were in my house permanently, I would have found somewhere better.  LOL)

Knit-mas Presents

So while I wasn’t doing any Christmas crafting this year, I did spent half of November and December knitting. What you ask? These storybook hats whose pattern was show-cased in my Knitting Patterns for Dummies book.

I made the green one first.  That is for our niece/ nephew set to arrive in May. You will notice it is smaller than the other two because I made it using the "baby" size pattern.  It came out OK but the ribs were a little wonky. I think because it was knit purl knit purl and I must have briefly and accidentally knit knit purled or purl purl knitted.

I have never knitted ribs, done any kind of decreasing, or used circular needles.  Mostly I have just knitted rectangles and squares.  Remember this? There was a bit of a learning curve here but they weren't too hard once I got started.

As I was pleased with hat number 1, I decided to make ones for our two nieces T-Bone and Buggy. I ventured into stripes here (as you can see). The ribs on the first one were OK with maybe a slight error. But, on the last hat, I decided to put counters after every 10 stitches. I knew I was supposed to hit them after I made a purl stitch so this helped keep me on track. The last hat had the best ribs.

I am now a pro hat knitter if anyone would like one.

Mr. thought the girls hats were way too big and was joking they would be ready to wear them to college. But, I followed the pattern for gauge and what-not using the "toddler" sizing and in the end, they fit them and Mr. had to admit, they were better than he originally gave me credit for.

I have regressed back to knitting rectangles though.  I am currently working on a scarf for myself using some gray merino wool I bought just because I liked it.  Stay tuned...

Tiki Claus

I haven't been particularly crafty this Christmas due to lack of inspiration combined with the fact that I have been super crafty the past few years and I think I may have reached the limit of homemade decor for our house at this time.  I just don't think there is anything (reasonable) left to make.

However, I was looking around at how I could add a bit of cheer to some undecorated corners of our house when I was inspired to dress our tiki men up in holiday apparel.

They were just hanging out in their appointed spots and really needed some holiday love.  So I grabbed some felt and a mini boa at Joann's this weekend and last night got to work.

Volia!:

Mr. actually suggested adding the beards.

I think they look fab.

The tikis however have been giving me the side-eye over this.  I think they are planning to escape on the next plane back to the South Pacific.

Quick and Easy Table Runner

I wanted a new table runner for our dining room and I couldn't find one that would "go" with our new drapes and chair covers.

I happened to be perusing Crate and Barrel Outlet's website and came across a tablecloth that had just the pattern and color scheme I was looking for so I thought, "I can make this into a table runner!". I purchased and waited for its arrival.

Here he is:



I bought the 60 inch square version because our table is 48 inches square.

I cut two pieces 60 x 16. I wanted the table runner to be about 14 inches across and well, the 60 was the size of the tablecloth as is.

I pinned these two pieces right sides together and sewed a 1 inch seam around leaving one part about 4 inches unsewn.

I did the inch seam because the hem on the tablecloth was 1 inch and I didn't want any seams to show.

So, once it was sewn, I trimmed the edges down with my rotary cutter. I did accidentally slice part of the fabric so I would suggest not doing this while watching television. Eh well, I fixed it with some Hollywood Tape and fabric glue since I didn't have a patch. You can't even notice unless you are looking.

Anyways, so once I trimmed the seams, I flipped it through the unsewn area and sewed that shut by hand.

I then pressed the whole thing.

And voila!

Roman Shade- Part II

OK. Now that the intro is over, let's get down to business.

Here are the instructions again in case you want to follow along.

To start, because this was outside mount, I measured from the outside of my window frame so that the entire thing would be covered. The length was eh, because I don't care if it hangs lower since we have crank windows (hate) the blind won't lay well anyways With outside mount, length doesn't need to precise IMO. I was more precise with the measurement for the width. I matched this to my existing blind. My measurements were 28 inches across and 57 or so inches high. I don't remember the exact height, I threw out the paper I wrote the measurements on, and am too lazy to go upstairs and remeasure so you will have to trust me.

For my fabric, which was a geometric pattern (ugg yet again), when I cut, I made sure to line up the squares so everything was even. Geometric patterns are such a pain but I seem to be drawn to them causing a never ending cycle of stress and crooked lines. I tried to center the pattern so that the same amount of pattern would be on both sides and I was quite smug that I did this until later on when I realized, I messed it up. Oh well. I don't think anyone will notice.

Moving on, to make sure of the top of my fabric throughout this whole thing, I kept some pins at the top so that I would remember which end was up because the fabric was the same upside down and right-side up. The fabric was marked as one end being the top so I wanted to make sure to keep it like that even though I must confess, the weave seemed the same on all sides.

When I was measuring the lines for the channels, I used a pattern board. (Step 5)

I thought I was being pretty swift with this because I could see the lines through the lining and thought for once everything would be even. I am sure you can see where this ends up going.

I put my channels 10 inches apart, same as the instructions.

When I made the channel strips, I ironed them in half and then each half in half. I felt this was easier than folding each side over 1/2 an inch and pinning and ironing. (Step 8)

One thing that annoyed me about these instructions was that when I went to sew the lining to the fabric, it didn't specify seam length. Seams are usually 5/8" but they can vary. I went with 1/2" here erring on the side of not wanting my blind to be too narrow. (Step 12)

I was pretty happy with my progress until I reached the point when you sew the other side of the channel to the fabric so that the sewn line is visible on the fabric. (Step 17)

Even with all my measuring, the lines were not horizontal and some of them skewed to the side. Because this was a geometric pattern, it would be very obvious if my lines weren't straight since you sew through the shade fabric. So I did the best I could sewing the edge, opting for a straight line rather than getting the entire channel sewn. Where it didn't catch, I ended up having to hand sew, it looked like this:



Ghetto, I know but I figured the only people looking at that would be our neighbors and, since I have had to watch them wipe their cat's bottom from my window (we have no idea why they do this), I figured they could deal.

I missed the part where the directions said to do two lines of rings. I did three spaced at intervals of 4 inches from the side and one ring in the middle. (Step 18)

Step 20: I hate hand-sewing and my whip-stitching to close the channel was weak. I figured no one would be able to see this forgetting i had an outside mount blind but alas:



Sigh.

I am reminded of a quote from Olivia de Havilland (I think) regarding how David O. Selznick in Gone with the Wind insisted they have fab underthings. It went something like this: "I told him no one would see it and he replied, you'll know they are there."

Anyways, I tend to go with the if you don't see it, as long as it works who cares mentality. Next time, I will be more cautious. At least you can't see this unless you go to the side of the blind and not by looking head on.

Mr. nicely sawed my board for me (Step 21) and painted it white (no step). Because it was outside mount, I thought painting it to match the frame would look OK. It did. Yeah!

Step 23 I changed and screwed in the eyes on the underside of the board. Because it was outside mount, I couldn't screw them into the place where the instructions listed. See here:



(Side note: We have the worst light in our basement. I try and try to get a good white balance but always fail. I won't give up but that is why the colors always seem off.)

I cut three lengths of nylon string (Step 25) because I had three ring rows.

The blind was made so we took it upstairs to hang it up!

I used 1 inch elbow brackets (not sure of the official name but I think that is it. I threw out the wrapping so I can't check.) to attach the blind to the frame. I used the old holes from our previous blinds so that was a win. Mr. nicely drilled holes for me in the top and screwed the blinds to the bracket:



And with that the blind was hung!

For a better view on how this looked on our frame from the side:



And the finished product:


Some last thoughts:

1. The instructions didn't say how you were supposed to keep the blind up. If you pull the string, it doesn't catch on anything so I just did a slip knot. We don't open and close this too often so it's not a huge deal. If anyone has a better suggestion, I am all for hearing it.

2. Once the blind was up, I did think it looked good, however I am not sure it matches our shower curtain. Case in point:



I thought the blues would complement and the different patterns look decent but I am not sold. Even Mr. said he didn't think it flowed that great but he said it looked OK enough. HA! I am thinking of ways to incorporate the colors better or maybe if I find another shower curtain on sale, I will just buy it.

Roman Shade- Part I

I dislike our guest bathroom.

When we first moved in, the room was bright white. It was like a hospital. The bright white walls, bright white cabinet, bright white floor, bright white everything. I tried to introduce some color and went for a light gray when we repainted. Unfortunately for me, on the walls, it was pretty much white. See here:



Mr. refuses to repaint and frankly, I do too. This room was a major pain to paint. So the gray is staying.

We also hate all of the tile in this room but alas we have no desire to overhaul this bathroom. It is functional for the two or three times a year we have guests and we are content with that.

This is the shade that was in there when we moved in:



The color was OK but with everything being so bland, I felt we needed an infusion of something.

We also had the issue of the blinds showing their age:



Ick.

So I decided my next project would be making a roman shade. I found these instructions online.

I looked around for fabric for awhile. I wanted something in a blue and eventually came across some blue fabric I liked at Joann's on major sale so I scooped it up.

I was able to get all of the materials needed at Home Depot and Joann's.

One note: The fabric I bought was canvas, which has two downfalls: 1. it sheds super easy. 2. it is not super flowy. Still worked but if you are looking for those qualities, not the fabric for you.

Also, if you look at the picture of the window above, yes, that is our neighbor's house so we definitely needed something that was opaque. I have never seen them with their blinds open but still. Better safe than sorry.

The biggest challenge that I had for this project was that the instructions were for an inside mount blind. We need to have outside mount on our windows so I modified the instructions accordingly.

I don't want this post getting too long and picture heavy so stay tuned for part 2 where I go through the interesting bits of the construction process.

Home for My iPhone- Follow Up

As I mentioned in previous post on this topic, I was not happy with the amount of padding produced by my first iPhone attempt. So this is attempt 2.

Instead of 2 pieces of 3x5 batting, I used 4 pieces of 2.5x4.5 batting. The rest of the measurements and supplies are the same. Changes to round 1 are bolded.

I did attempt a new way to close the top since I ran into problems last time. Here is what I did for round 2.

1. Cut fabric so that you have 4 pieces of 6 x 4.25 inch fabric and 4 2.5 x 4.5 inches of batting.


2. Pin the two outside fabric pieces together with the right sides facing in.

3. Pin the two lining fabric pieces together with the right sides facing in.

4. Sew a 5/8 inch seam around three of the four sides of both the lining and outside fabrics leaving the top open. Leave an inch or so unsewn toward the top on both sides.

Make sure if your fabric has a direction you don’t sew the top accidentally.




5. Trim the seam down to about a ¼ inch for both. I also trimmed the corners to eliminate bulk.

6. Take the extra scrap and fold it in on both sides and then in again. Sew a line down the middle.

7. Pin the inside of the outside fabric top to the inside of the lining. Right sides face in. Pin the piece of fabric in step 6 folded in half with the ends sticking into the seam. Sew across this about a 1/2 inch seam.

Fold the other sides of both fabrics down. You don't want to sew these other two sides.

If this seems confusing. Here is a visual for what this will look like when you are done.




8. Line up the batting on the lining to make sure it will fit within the seam.


9. Put two piece of batting on the inside of the seam you just sewed in step 6.


10. This is going to be confusing so it may help if you look at the pic in step 7.

The green fabric is the lining. The blue is the outside.

Take the lining fabic with the batting next to it on the side with the sewn top seam and shove it into the pocket created by the sewn outside fabric. It is kind of like folding socks.

In the end, you should have the lining inside the outside fabric on the side with the loop and sewn top seam.

11. At this point I sewed the button on about an inch and a quarter from the top to the outside fabric only on the unsewn side.

12. Fold the unsewn top pieces of the case in about a ½ inch and pin.

13. Hand sew the open sides and the open top shut. Now, I did try to sew the open sides with the sewing machine but I didn't backstitch and the stitches fell out so I ended up hand-sewing them. If you can sew the side seams with the machine, more power to you.

14. So at this point, I was done! Voila!

Home for My iPhone

As Mr. mentioned, we recently got iPhones. While Mr. was suckered into an iPhone case at the store, I was not. When I got home and realized maybe I do want a case, I did some internet searching and decided I could make one using what I already had and so in effect it would be FREE! I love free so why not?

Here is what I did:

Supplies:

2 6 x 4.25 inch pieces of fabric for the outside
2 6 x 4.25 inch pieces of fabric for the lining plus 1 additional scrap about 4 inches long and maybe an inch wide.
2 3x5 inch pieces of batting
1 button
1 spool of thread

I have a ton of left over fabrics and chose two from there. They ended up being the same fabrics I used for my yoga bag a few months ago. I also used some of the batting left over from the baby blanket I just made and a button that was in my spare button bag.

1. Cut fabric so that you have 4 pieces of 6 x 4.25 inch fabric and 2 3 x5 inches of batting.



2. Pin the two outside fabric pieces together with the right sides facing in.

3. Pin the two lining fabric pieces together with the right sides facing in.

4. Sew a 5/8 inch seam around three of the four sides of both the lining and outside fabrics leaving the top open.

Make sure if your fabric has a direction you don’t sew the top accidentally.

5. Trim the seam down to about a ¼ inch for both. I also trimmed the corners to eliminate bulk.




6. Flip the outside fabric pieces so that they are right side out.

7. Line up the batting on the lining to make sure it will fit within the seam.



8. Stuff the batting and lining inside the outside fabric. One piece of batting should go on each side.



9. At this point I sewed the button on about an inch and a quarter from the top to the outside fabric only.

10. Take the extra scrap and fold it in on both sides and then in again. Sew a line down the middle.



11. Fold the top pieces of the case in about a ½ inch and pin.

12. Take the extra scrap that you have sewn, fold it in half placing part of each end in the seam. Make sure you have enough length so that it will close on the button.

13. Now, at this point, I was originally going to hand sew the top seam closed. But hand sewing takes awhile and I thought it could use an edge stitch to look complete. My issue was I had a small hole to sew around and I wasn’t sure of the best way to go about doing it since it wouldn't fit sleeve-like over my sewing machine. I thought that if I could go slowly and just push the other part back, it could work. I also changed the foot on my sewing machine to a zipper foot because I thought it would give me more leeway. I think this may have been not so smart. Either way, there has to be a better way to do this but I am not a professional so eh, I was making this up as I went and the edge stitching could have looked better but it will do. I am trying to visualize a better way to do this for future use and will keep you posted.




14. So at this point, I was done! Voila!






UPDATE: I have been using this case for about a week and love it for the most part. However, I wish it was bulkier to give the phone more protection. So I am going to work on a updated case and will let you know how it goes.

Blanketology

I recently made this blanket for our new niece Baby A.

I made this pattern up as I went after looking at a few other blankets for ideas.

Supplies needed:

1 ½ yards fabric to be used for the top

1 ½ yards fabric to be used for the bottom

2 layers of batting

1 spool of thread

I used flannel for the top and minky fabric for the bottom. I chose to do two layers of batting to make it thicker so that the blanket would be super warm or good as a floor play mat. Obviously you can use one layer, two layers, or zero layers of batting. Similarly, any measurements can be modified according to the size you need.

1. After washing all of your fabrics including the batting to account for shrinkage, cut everything.

I cut my batting to 35 inches square and the outer fabrics to 36 ½ inches. I chose 35 inches for the batting because that was the width after it was washed. This way I only had to cut one side since the pieces lined up like so:



Nice way to save yourself some measuring. I was envisioning the blanket would be about 36 inches square anyways so that worked out well.

I made the outer fabrics a little bigger so that I could sew the standard 5/8 inch seam and so that when the blanket finally was together, the batting would have some room and not bunch or need to be cut down to fit inside the fabric.

If you are using a patterned piece that is geometric like the harlequin pattern I used be sure to figure out what the center of the fabric is and cut accordingly so that everything stays in line. I am crazy so cutting out the harlequin pattern took me forever. This didn’t cross my mind when purchasing the fabric or else I might have made a different choice. Obviously, for those more relaxed, you can cut it any way you want. I would also recommend a cutting mat and rotary cutter for this part. I used scissors and it was a major pain to keep everything straight.


2. Pin the two fabrics so that they are inside out.




Make sure that the fabrics are facing the correct direction if there is a clear up and down to your pieces. If you are using minky like me, make sure the nap is facing down. I pinned the corners together first. Minky is stretchy and I wanted to make sure everything was aligned properly. Then, I pinned the middles and then the rest.

3. Begin sewing making sure to leave an 8 inch or so part unsewn. Backstitch at each end.



I eyeballed the hole size but just make sure your hole is big enough to flip the blanket and get the batting in. I used a 5/8 inch seam because it’s standard and the sewing machine has a clear mark on it for when to turn the corner. I used a standard sewing needle size 90/14 with a standard stitch.

Once this was done, I actually trimmed down the seam to about a ¼ inch. I hate dealing with too small seams so the few minutes it took to do this was an easy trade off for fighting with my sewing machine.

4. Cut the corners to remove extra bulk. Make sure not to cut the seam open.

5. Flip the blanket so the right sides face outside. Push out the corners with a tool if need be.

6. Put the batting in.

I did this like I do our down comforter when I am switching the duvet by holding a corner to keep everything in place from the outside and then using my skills to smooth everything out.


7. Once the blanket is smoothed out and the batting is lying flat, sew the opening shut by hand.

This was my least favorite part.

8. You could use the blanket as is. But, to keep the batting from getting all mixed up and moving around, I did a one inch topstitch around the outside of the blanket. Backstitch at each end.

My machine doesn’t have a one inch mark so I measured one out and made a line on my machine. I also measured out where to turn the fabric so that the stitching is one inch on all sides. I marked this on my machine as well.

9. You are done! Voila!

Freshening Up Our Chairs

I have hated the material on our dining chairs since 2004 or so when I bought the table. I purchased a staple gun at said time in order to recover them. I never picked out material and alas they kept the same ugly fabric. See here:

As you can also notice the whitish cover is now dingy and dirty primarily from us standing on them to reach things (hey, we are both shorties and we have a step stool now per Mr's request). They are gross all around.

I was inspired by this post to recover them.

Now, the hard part of this was picking material. I like flair. Mr. does not.

After a long and painful search online and in person, we decided on this fabric as a compromise.

As you will notice, it is very gray in the picture. It was not so in real life. It seemed more blue than gray. But, we kept it anyways.

Mr. had the idea of doing two of our chairs in reverse and two in the normal side. Since the back of the fabric didn't look like it was the back of a fabric, I did it. Each chair took me about 10 minutes with my trusty staple gun.

Here is the result:

I have to say, the covers look like reptile skin or something like a lizard. Mr. thinks it looks like a leopard. I did not love it right out of the gate but they are growing on me. I do love that they are unusual for dining chairs.

This is our dining area before:

and after:

I know the light is off in the second picture but it is overcast and there was no way around it unless I waited until later in the week to take a pic and I know how my audience loves immediate gratification. I think though you get the picture.

This chair redo has inspired me to redo our whole dining area. I am on the hunt for curtain material now. All of our rooms in our house are very colorful so I am not sure why we went so neutral with this one. The blahness is boring.

I will keep you posted when the next stage in our dining room redo is finished.

Cozy Scarf

I came across this pattern and decided to go for it.

So I bought some flannel and got started.

I decided to leave off the fringe because I am not a fringe type gal and all in all the sewing of the scarf took about 20 minutes. I made two because my flannel was 54 inches wide and what else was I going to do with it? The hardest part was cutting the fabric straight. Usually I rip fabric in order to get a straight line but I didn't think you could really do that with flannel so I kept cutting and measuring. For the most part, I did OK. I used this scarf when I was out in the blizzard but I made it to be my inhouse scarf. We keep our house at cool temps and I am always freezing so I though this would be nice when I am in my jammies reclining on the couch. It is. So win for me!

More Pillows

When we first moved into our house, I bought material to make curtains out of. I never made those curtains. The material has sat around for all that time until now. I decided to make them into pillow cases. I took two pieces of material sized 40.5 long by 21 high (in inches). I sewed three edges and then tuned the side that wasn't sewn in by seven inches. I took two of these inches and turn them in to make a more complete looking seam. I also made some decorative lines of stitches to make it more exciting. Here is the result. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture.

Five New Pillows!

When I went searching for bargains at the after-Christmas sales, I came upon a bunch of Christmas napkins at Pottery Barn that were on sale for $2.99 plus 20% off. In a fit of inspiration, I bought 10 and decided to make pillows out of them. Three for me, two for my sister. It's been awhile since I have made a pillow and I have to confess putting in the zippers was a bit of a pain (Especially as the first one I left the zipper until the end. Um yeah. Not smart. It is hard to put a zipper in when all the sides of a pillow are sewn shut.) These were not the best craftmanship but I do have to say I am pleased with how they came out especially considering how cheap they were (total cost less than $30). Take a look: