‘Tis the season to make everything out of felt

After that mammoth teaser last week I have decided to prolong the wait for the craft/baking extravaganza I mentioned and instead talk a little about Christmas crafting, as time is really now of the essence since we have arrived in December so suddenly! This year I’ve done a lot of crafting for Christmas partly due to encountering people with some excellent ideas and partly due to the arrival of my new best friend – my sewing machine. The first thing I made in anticipation of this very day was my Christmas stocking advent calendar.

This was very simple indeed. I cut out 24 little stockings from green and red eco-friendly felt and then cut out 24 snowy tops from white felt. I pinned these together and sewed around the edge them with a simple blanket stitch in a cream embroidery thread. I then sewed on a little handle through which the stocking hang on a length of white ribbon. I tailor made mine to fit to my fireplace. For the numbers I made a template in Word of the numbers, cut them out and pinned them to the felt. I then stuck the felt numbers onto the stockings with fabric glue.

To keep the stockings in place I sewed them onto the ribbon with white thread and so that they all face forwards I reversed them half way. You could easily do this project in a weekend in front of the telly so you’d be able to fill your little stocking asap and only a few days into advent. I’m filling mine with gold coins and chocolate Santas. Hurrah!

My next crafting adventure (and to use up some of the left over felt from my advent calendar!) was some handmade Christmas cards. These are so easy and so cute (if I may say so myself!)

I made a template reindeer on some paper and then cut it out in red felt. I then glued the felt reindeer onto a shimmery card and added some gems for a collar around its neck. The Merry Christmas banner is some ribbon which I cut to size and glued on. I’m planning on doing these with all different felt shapes and ribbon colours.

Christmas is also a time where I indulge my love of gold disco hologram glitter in my baking. I’m hosting my annual Christmas partaaay next weekend so will be baking away next week. Recipes and pics to follow….

Happy Advent!