Hi Lettered Cottage readers, I’m Beckie from Infarrantly Creative, Knock Off Décor and Roadkill Rescue.
Yep. I am a tri-blogger — in love with knock-off projects, curbside finds, and inexpensive craft and décor ideas.
It is a huge honor to be visiting TLC today. When I finished the advent calendar pillow project I’m going to blog about here today, I thought to myself, “this looks like it belongs in The Lettered Cottage“!
Confession: I have a thing for counting down to big events. Confession #2: I have a Dollar Tree Bucket Advent Calendar, the Silhouette calendar, and a billion Hershey Kiss Boards. I know, I know. It’s a countdown sickness. But there’s just something about counting them down that makes the days even more special to me!
My latest countdown creation was inspired by the Advent Calendar Pillow in the most recent Ballard Designs catalog…
Source: Ballard Designs
It retails for $69, so I thought I would try to make one myself for less. Here’s what I came up with:
Supplies:
20” of black ticking fabric (I can’t find it locally so I purchased it at Fabric.com)
sewing machine
black thread
ecru colored thread
pins
burlap (Joann Fabrics)
Martha Stewart Crafts Fabric Medium (Michaels)
Martha Stewart Craft Beetle Black Paint (Michaels)
Red Ticking Fabric (Joann Fabrics)
Stamps or stencil for numbers
ruler
foam brush
needle
poly-fill
(I already had many of these items, so I only spent about $15 total on this project.)
1. Cut one 19” x 19” piece, and two 19” x 13” pieces from the black ticking fabric. Also cut five 2-1/2” x 19” pieces of natural-colored burlap.
2. Ballards serged the edges of the burlap, but since I don’t own a serger, I just used a satin stitch on the long edges of my burlap.
3. I used a pencil and a ruler to mark where the calendar numbers would be stamped onto the burlap. It’s easiest to find the middle of your burlap strips first, and then measure out. I made a pencil mark every 3”.
4. Then I mixed some fabric medium with some black craft paint. Using a foam brush, I painted the backs of my foam stamps and stamped on each number.
5. Using a ruler, I evenly spaced out my burlap strips on top of my ticking fabric, leaving 1-1/2” on the top and bottom, and about 1” between the numbered strips. After that, I pinned it all in place. Then, I sewed the bottoms of the burlap strips onto the 19” square of ticking fabric.
6. To create pockets, I sewed a line down between the numbers using those pencil marks I made before as my guide.
7. I made the back of my pillow envelope-style. I pressed the 19” edge under 1”, and then 1” again, and pressed it flat. Then I sewed it down. I did that with both pieces.
8. With right sides together, I pinned the pillow front and back together, overlapping the two pieces in the back.
9. I sewed along the edges and clipped off the excess material in the corners. After that, I added an 18” pillow form.
10. Then I needed to make the little stuffed candy cane. I just cut two candy cane-shaped pieces of red ticking fabric on the bias to create the look of a peppermint candy cane. Then I sewed them together (wrong sides out) leaving an opening at the bottom of the candy cane. Next, I turned it right side out, stuffed it with polyfill, and hand-stiched the bottom closed.
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Isn’t that great? 🙂 Thanks so much to Beckie for sharing this awesome Christmas craft today, and don’t forget about our Holiday Home linky parties next week.
We’ll be partyin’ over here bright and early next Monday, so if you have a table decor post you’d like to link up, I hope you’ll be here with (jingle) bells on!
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