ElleAyJay: Advent Garland

We are well and truly in the countdown to Christmas, and what better way to do this than with an advent calendar. There must be a million versions of this simple tradition, some consist of opening a perforated card 'door' to reveal a picture (or more commonly these days a small chocolate); others are more elaborate involving 24 containers, each bearing a small gift.

Up until last year I was a true traditionalist about this and stuck to the simple illustration with 24 doors. In fact, I still have this in card form as my friend in Germany sends me one of these as a birthday card each year, which I love!

This year's birthday advent calendar

However, inspired by Design Sponge's Falling Stars Advent Calendar I set about creating my own version - making it with felt rather than brown paper so that it could be used for years to come. I started by cutting out 24 different shaped stars from white felt and then made backs for each star by cutting out two overlapping halves. Using silver embroidery thread and a simple chain stitch I sewed numbers to the front of each and then used whip stitch to join the front to the back. Various lengths of narrow silver ribbon for hanging the stars finished each one.

My next challenge was to find a suitable branch to hang all my stars from. Living in the middle of a city with only a small garden, this proved rather difficult. However, I enlisted the help of my Dad who appeared in the last week of November with half a holly tree sticking out of the top of his car (I thought it best not to ask too many questions - he lives in a flat so it certainly didn't come from anything he had readily to hand!) As for things to go in the stars, my lovely friend Ce set about filling them all as my Christmas present. This resulted in a wonderful haul of chocolates, craft accessories, lip balm and jewellery appearing daily throughout December.

2013's advent branch

This year, not wishing to risk having my Dad arrested, I felt I needed to come up with a better solution for hanging the stars. A trip to my local high street resulted in me hauling home a 2.5m festive garland. I say 'hauling' but it did fit into a carrier bag so there was no chance of being pulled over by the Transport Police!