Remember those little cardboard advent calenders that you open a little door each day and take out a little piece of yummy chocolate candy? As a child it was such a fun way to count down days until Christmas. Since I admire those trendy buntings I see online so much, I decided to make a little bunting advent calendar for my girls to count down to the big day with. Each flag is a little pocket that will hold different flavors of chocolate kisses – you can place any little item you’d like in the pockets though – maybe activity slips to excite them, such as “Ice Skating Tonight!”
The actual making of this calendar is a little bit time consuming, but it’s simple and so cute! We’ll be hanging it up every season for many years to come.
I first cut my flags out of natural burlap – you’ll notice from my pictures that I had a few trial and errors. 😉 I initially made my flag pattern just 3 inches wide at the top (widest) part of the flag. After sewing, I found that it was just a bit smaller than I wanted. I recreated my pattern so that the pattern was 4 inches wide at the top portion of the flag (download PDF below). Since burlap frays so easily, I serged the top portion of each flag then sewed it together on the 2 long edges. I used a serger but a zig-zag stitch would work just as well!
I ironed Heat N Bond to the wrong side of the decorative fabric that I wanted to use for the numbers. If you haven’t heard of Heat N Bond, it’s a double sided fusible interfacing so it is perfect for applique! I then used a stencil and drew the numbers into the paper Heat N Bond. Unlike me, you’ll have to remember to flip the stencils backward so that once you cut out your number and turn it around to show the right side of your decorative fabric, your number is the correct way. Apparently, I couldn’t wrap my brain around that because not only did I mess them up for the pictures, I also continued to struggle with this phenomena. 😉
Cut out each individual number and peel the paper off the Heat N Bond. Place onto your flag and iron on. It was only after I cut out all 41 numbers (1 through 25!), my sister-on-law suggested next time we use her criket to cut them out. Ha! YES! Definitely do that if you can, but I actually found that cutting out the numbers was fun and relaxing. 😉
Once my flags were complete, I attached them to a length of twine with some mini clothespins I found at the local craft store. I cannot wait until December 1st! Let the count down begin!
Download Flag Bunting Pattern here.
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