Advent Snowman Calendar Nov/Dec 2015

Snowmen Advent Calendar   November/ December 2015

Growing up, we always had an advent calendar as kids to count down the days till Christmas.
I had ordered a kit from Connecting Threads to make an advent calendar for my grandkids.
The kit was a simple panel with snowmen printed at the top and 24 numbered squares under that. Another piece of fabric had 24 small mittens printed on it.




You were supposed to put batting behind the mittens, cut them out and hang them on each numbered square as each day came along. My daughter thought that was not a good idea as the little ones (who were aged 11/2 years and twins 3 1/2) would probably play with and lose most of the mittens before the month of December was even half over.   ❄




Pockets! I decided numbered pockets were the answer.  I kept the top of the panel with the printed snowmen, but cut the rest off.  I made 5 rows of 5 pockets instead, then appliquéd the 24 mittens onto the pockets.  I used a quilt/ fabric pen to write the numbers on the mittens. I had a 25th pocket so decided to fussy cut a reindeer from some fabric scraps and wrote a "25" on that.  That would be the Christmas pocket!

After that I cut a piece of back fabric to fit, added the batting in the middle and made a mock edge* on it.

Snowman back fabric

 🎄


It turned out quite well and my daughter filled the pockets with little treats and prizes for our grandchildren to "discover" each day. A nice way to do the Christmas count down.      ⛄


 (How to do  Mock edging:  Cut the excess back fabric to 1 inch wide, fold it in towards the quilt and press. Flip it over to the front and sewing it down.)  Easy Peasy!