Sunday, December 19, 2010

Advent Calendar













My big project for Christmas this year was to make an advent calendar for the Cookie & Kiss.













Thankfully those two still live in the present moment because it took me eight days to sew rather than the two days I gave myself.



















After looking at several different patterns for inspiration I thought I knew what I wanted to do. There are pros and cons to working without a pattern. One advantage was the freedom to do anything I wanted, but the flip side was that it took longer as I made design choices along the way.













Originally I thought I would do the numbers in small buttons, but that would have distorted the pockets and added bulk. The buttons were tossed in favor of appliqued numbers. The pockets are roughly 5x5 squares. The dimensions came to 33" x 41". It was big, but with two kiddos the pockets had accommodate two of everything.

Two years ago, I made the kids their stockings. Luckily I had lots of bias tape from the project that I used to trim the calendar.













Cookie and Kiss love their calendar and were more interested in filling the pockets than emptying them. Kiss claimed number 3 because it had the star on it.













Christmas is two days away. Our tree has yet to be trimmed, but it is beautiful in its natural state. We bought a big one this year. For the most part the presents have been bought and wrapped. Today there will be grocery shopping and last minute runs, dressing the naked Christmas tree, and cleaning up after days and days of rain.



















Are you ready for Santa?

5 comments:

Beth McDermott Oliver said...

This advent calendar is so pretty and will no doubt be used for many, many years to come. As a matter of fact the two of them will probably argue over who gets custody of it when they have their own children. I hope we get to see a picture of them with their calendar!

Have a very Merry Christmas, Natalie.

Lori said...

Oh, Natalie, this is beautiful! Great work, once again. Merry Kwistmakkah! xo, Lori

Jean said...

Your advent calendar is beautiful -- so much attention to detal. Those two are the luckiest kids! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Alexis said...

Those are some lucky kids!

Merry Christmas, Natalie!

Paige said...

What a lovely Advent Calendar - truly, it's awesome! They're so lucky to have an Auntie like You!