DIY: A Starry Advent Calendar

Friends, this advent calendar took me a little longer to complete than I had hoped, but boy am I so thrilled with it! :)  It probably took a little longer because I was waiting for us to finish another project that would be used along with the calendar - a wooden dowel tree.  You get to see both projects today, but I'm just going to show you how I made the advent calendar part (the tree how to will be in another post). :)

The advent calendar is pretty simple overall:  embroidered felt star pouches on a wooden dowel.  The dowel was a leftover piece from the tree above.  I ended up running short on time for this project so Mummu stepped in again and helped me embroider 22 of the 24 stars.  I'm so spoiled (thanks Mummu!).  

Because I wanted to use the calendar for both of my boys, I decided to attach small packages for each of the boys to the felt stars rather than use the pouches.  I may use the pouches as well for the days that we decide to do an activity as opposed to a small treat or gift.  I also will only attach the treat/gift/activity one at a time/each day since I know my boys would not be able to leave the packages alone.  Here's the tree sans decoration.

I set up the tree and calendar in the corner of their room for the pictures.  The calendar on the door has worked okay so far as it easily slips off one of the handles if you need to get into the closet.  The tree itself is a little squished in the corner with the boys beds also on that side so I think it will end up moving to the other side of the closet in front of the bookshelf.

Here are a few pictures of the boys decorating the tree.  Little Pilot was beyond cute when I asked him to put the stars on the tree.  He was so serious and initially started putting all the stars on the same branch.  I told him to spread them out allover the tree and he, very diligently, put one on each branch.  He is so excited about Christmas already.  Co-pilot on the other hand preferred to play with my lens cap and went straight for the packages that were still hanging from the first star.  He loves to watch his older brother and I think as we start doing this everyday, he'll get the hang of it. :)

The how to for the tree will be in another post and I think we may add some other decorations to the tree as we really get into decorating.  Today I'll briefly outline how I made the star pouches.

Felt Star Advent Calendar

Materials:

Craft felt, embroidery floss, yarn, thread

How to:

1.  cut 48 stars out of felt

2.  Embroider half of the stars with the numbers 1 to 24 (a stem stitch was used in this project).  The numbers could also painted on with fabric paint.

3.  Attach a piece of yarn (for the loop) to the wrong side of the tip of both an embroidered star and a plain star by stitching back and forth with a zigzag stitch (the yarn could also be glued on with fabric/hot glue).

4.  Top stitch around the edges of the stars leaving the top peak of the star unstitched/open to create a pouch.

5. Screw eye hooks into either end of a wooden dowel (the one pictured is 2 feet long).  Slip the felt stars onto the dowel and attach a string to either end.  Make sure to use a knot/bow that is easy to untie at one end.  

Small packages were attached to the stars in order to use the advent calendar for two children.

That's our new advent calendar and wooden dowel tree.  I will be back with a tutorial on how to make the tree soon!