Advent Calendar

This post is very tardy I'm afraid, sorry about that friends.  Life here has been ongoingly hectic preparing for Christmas, rearranging and re-carpeting our house, and generally trying to cut our belongings down by what feels like 50% before our next arrival in January.  To say I'm exhausted is an understatement, but here's the finished product!  Better late than never!

 

My calendar is made of 25 linen handmade bags, labelled using the beautifully handprinted DIY advent calendar numbers on linen by Leslie of Maze and Vale.  The numbers are lovely and simple with a touch of vintage, and were exactly what I was after.

Bags are lined with some red and white heavyweight cotton I had in the stash which I originally intended on sewing into some nice grocery totes, but never got to it.  After fixing the numbers on by applique, I added some hand stitching as well just to add a handmade touch.  They're secured to twine on my wall using the covered pegs I described in last post.

As usual, I grossly underestimated the time it would take to sew these bags up.  25 identical pieces is a LOT of repetition and it felt like a sweatshop in here for a while there.  But they're done now, and the best bit is, next years calendar is done too!

I am very pleased with the outcome of these, as time consuming as it was to complete.  We're doing lots of Christmas-ey activites now, which is also keeping me on my toes (but I secretly love it).

Happy December everyone!  Hope you're enjoying your own christmas prep.