Christmas Advent Calendar, 2.0

"For we have seen his star in the East." Matthew 2:2

There are lots of things I've made through the years, but I can finally share some of them, because they are hanging up in our house!  This is the advent calendar I designed in 2004.  I wanted to make a fun way to count down to Christmas that wasn't directly related to Santa Claus or Christmas Trees.  Thinking about a new star to mark the birth of Christ, I designed this simple advent.  I found a lovely blue wool blend felt, and used that for the background and 24 pockets.   I used a lot of heat n bond to adhere our family name and the numbers to the pockets. all cut from red wool felt. 

I sewed on 24 buttons, with a special button for Christmas eve.  Then, I bonded the felt to a fun red plaid fabric (where I had already sewed on a pocket to hold a dowel) to hide all the sewing from the buttons and pockets. This also made it stronger. 

I made the stars, using off-white and gold felt.  I borrowed my mom's pinking shears to cut the white felt, which gave them some style.  I hand sewed each star together with embroidery floss, and then used my sewing machine to make button holes in each one.

I hand sewed beads to make the Christmas Eve star extra special.

To finish the calendar, I bound the edge with a patchwork strip of gold toned fabric.  This is where the 2.0 comes in.  Last night, I realized a couple of the bottom pockets had not been sewn properly, and that we had lost one of the stars.  I made this before I had learned to bind quilts, and hadn't done the best job of sewing on the binding.  So, I carefully picked off all of the binding, repaired the pockets, made a replacement star, and resewed the binding on properly.  Now it is ready for another 5 years of children loving the count-down  until Christmas. 

Linked to Twelve Crafts Christmas Traditions.