Advent Calendar Wall Hanging

by Alisa

I found this Makower UK 'Wrap It Up' advent calendar panel on Etsy when I was searching for another Makower UK fabric earlier this year. I bought it and began planning to make it for my nephew and two nieces this Christmas.

The instructions for the calendar are printed at the top of the panel. I found this video tutorial from Makower UK very helpful in putting it together. They demo a different panel but the assembly is the same.

I started by cutting the panel and the pocket strips on the solid lines. I then used my mini iron to prep the pocket strips - creating the hems and box pleats and then sewing them to the calendar panel.

After I had finished sewing all the pockets to the top, I played around with the fancy stitch options on my new machine and added some stars and a 'Merry Christmas' greeting to the borders.

I used coordinating fabric from the same line (ordered from Needle In A Fabric Stash on Etsy) for the backing.

I added a sleeve of that fabric to the backing for hanging. They demoed this technique on the video tutorial. My sleeve was about 12" long by 3" wide. One helpful tip on the video was to sew the 2nd side of the open sleeve close to the first seam to create a tunnel for the dowel. Make sure to sew the sleeve close to the top of the backing.

I layered the backing (right side up), batting and then the top (right side down) and used my even-feed foot from Janome to sew around all 4 sides, leaving about 6 inches open at the bottom for turning.

I turned it, ironed the unsewn hem at the bottom, and then top-stitched all four sides using the even-feed foot. I then ironed the entire wall hanging to fuse the batting to the top and back.

I added a .5" dowel cut to size and a ribbon for hanging. Once I added the candy to the pockets the Advent Calendar was complete.

This was my first project on my new Janome Skyline S3 and I just love it; the machine and the advent calendar!

I can't find this panel, but Makower UK has several other advent panels available that are very cute.

This is a fun project and it was very well received by my nieces and nephew. They love it!

Comments

Katie McGrath said…

I'm sure this calendar will be treasured for years! It's wonderful. Katie McGrath

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