Advent Calendar

So I made an advent calendar this year. I finished it just in time for the first day, and am just now getting around to posting about it. It was super easy and took me two days to make, start to finish. (And that's saying a lot with my two kids!)

I got the idea here.

Here's what I used:
8 sheets of white felt
red floss
28 red buttons
1/4 yard plaid material
clothesline
ribbon
1 big bag Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark

• I cut 25 strips of felt that were 6 1/2"x2 1/2", then rounded the edges.

• I sewed the buttons on about and inch er so from one of the ends. (The basic instructions are here.)

• Then I folded up the end with a button to make a pocket, and used a slip stitch to go around the edges, like here.

• I then sewed a 4" length of floss to the top of the envelope and knotted it both on the bottom and the top, just to make sure it didn't pull through.

• I printed the numbers 1-25 off in one of my favorite cutesy fonts and traced them onto each envelope using one of those disappearing ink fabric pens. Then I just stitched them right on!

• I filled each one with a yummy piece of peppermint bark, which are the perfect size for these pockets! Then folded the flap over a clothesline and wound the string around the button to close it. I tied pieces of material by each one and ta-da! All done! I tied a bow on ether end and hung it in the hall.

To make the stars, I printed the pattern off from here. Then I covered it with tape (just so it didn't get ruined by tracing) and traced it onto felt 6 times. Then I sewed a button into the middle of 3 stars. Then slip stitched two stars together, and right before getting all the way around, I stuffed them. I sewed them onto lengths of ribbon and tied bows of fabric to place on top. I like how they turned out! Super cute!
Oh! And to keep track of where we are, I printed these off, cut them out, attached them to some floss and tied them to each button. I placed them inside the envelopes with the chocolates and then every day when we take the chocolate out, we pull the dangle out too. Here we are today, 13 pockets in.So a big thank you goes out to Jenny B Harris over at Allsorts for the super cute idea! I love it! And so does my little man, who has been loving having a piece of yummy "special" chocolate every day!