Advent of Christmas Cats
Christmastide was approaching, and all the shops had started to hock the usual garishly-coloured, cartoon-bedecked, cheap chocolate-filled cardboard Advent Calenders. Personally, I love Advent calenders - who can resist that sense of glee you get as you open little doors or gifts, down and down and all the way down to Christmas Day? But nice Advent calendars seem few and far between these days. And OK, so I have nothing against 'garish' (I'm sure you're not surprised), but the chocolate-flavoured candy you get in those commercial ones is just nasty. Adding to my reluctance-to-buy is the fact they're usually unrecyclable, glued and packed in swathes of plastic, and generally just not eco-friendly at all.
So I decided that this year I would buy myself a permanent Advent Calendar.
I had a browse on (The eVil That Is) eBay, trying to find something that appealed. The wooden ones shaped like a house with little drawers in them were mostly pretty and a couple were quite tempting, but they also were stupidly expensive (£25 - £35 once you included P&P) and a bit too bulky for something used for 1/12th of the year, given my lack of storage space. I had been intending to buy one readymade, but then I spotted some sort of quilting pattern/print/thingy with cats. The most adorable little gold-edged cats. So, I'd have to do some sewing, but I was sold.
Basically it's a hanging, which you cut out into a backing piece and seperate pockets, which you then hem and sew them onto the hanging. Then you finishe it off with a layer of wadding and some backing material. A bit more effort than I'd normally want to expend on Christmas decorations, but I figure I'll be happy to keep this one for posterity, and I can store it in my linens box when it isn't in use. It was also cheerfully cheap - because if you look carefully on the finished hanging you'll see there's actually two '8's. Fortunately I have a gold silk paint outliner I can fix that with.
I haven't got around to sewing loops on the back yet, but in essence it's finished - and it's also the first day of December - so here it is:
Cutting up the pieces from the printed fabric.
Those rotary cutters are wonderful tools, but viciously sharp - after my (fortunately minor) run-in with one I'm always extra careful around them.
Handstitching the hemmed individual pockets onto the calendar.
Done whilst watching NCIS and roleplaying a Byzantine Knight in Masquerade.
Machine sewing the wadding and backing fabric (a medium-weight pine green cotton) onto the calendar. No, you are not imagining things. Yes, that is a hand-cranked old Singer. Proud possesion of tatanatanya and currently (though hopefully not for long) the only sewing machine in the house. The bobbin looks like something out of a Giger set!
Stitching together the bottom end. Finished on November 30th!
Finished Cat Advent Calendar.
To continue the green drive (and also on sale), the pockets are stuffed with mini-bars of Green & Black's Organic Fair Trade Chocolate in Ginger, Butterscotch, Dark, Milk, Almond and Cherry.
The finished Advent Calendar is about 55cm wide and 75cm long, and very very pretty!
So I decided that this year I would buy myself a permanent Advent Calendar.
I had a browse on (The eVil That Is) eBay, trying to find something that appealed. The wooden ones shaped like a house with little drawers in them were mostly pretty and a couple were quite tempting, but they also were stupidly expensive (£25 - £35 once you included P&P) and a bit too bulky for something used for 1/12th of the year, given my lack of storage space. I had been intending to buy one readymade, but then I spotted some sort of quilting pattern/print/thingy with cats. The most adorable little gold-edged cats. So, I'd have to do some sewing, but I was sold.
Basically it's a hanging, which you cut out into a backing piece and seperate pockets, which you then hem and sew them onto the hanging. Then you finishe it off with a layer of wadding and some backing material. A bit more effort than I'd normally want to expend on Christmas decorations, but I figure I'll be happy to keep this one for posterity, and I can store it in my linens box when it isn't in use. It was also cheerfully cheap - because if you look carefully on the finished hanging you'll see there's actually two '8's. Fortunately I have a gold silk paint outliner I can fix that with.
I haven't got around to sewing loops on the back yet, but in essence it's finished - and it's also the first day of December - so here it is:
Cutting up the pieces from the printed fabric.
Those rotary cutters are wonderful tools, but viciously sharp - after my (fortunately minor) run-in with one I'm always extra careful around them.
Handstitching the hemmed individual pockets onto the calendar.
Done whilst watching NCIS and roleplaying a Byzantine Knight in Masquerade.
Machine sewing the wadding and backing fabric (a medium-weight pine green cotton) onto the calendar. No, you are not imagining things. Yes, that is a hand-cranked old Singer. Proud possesion of tatanatanya and currently (though hopefully not for long) the only sewing machine in the house. The bobbin looks like something out of a Giger set!
Stitching together the bottom end. Finished on November 30th!
Finished Cat Advent Calendar.
To continue the green drive (and also on sale), the pockets are stuffed with mini-bars of Green & Black's Organic Fair Trade Chocolate in Ginger, Butterscotch, Dark, Milk, Almond and Cherry.
The finished Advent Calendar is about 55cm wide and 75cm long, and very very pretty!