Christmas craft revealed

Okay, the wait is over. I have been busily working on our family advent calender for the past month and it is practically done. Whew! It has been quite the labor of love, it makes me tired just thinking about it! I took these pictures quickly before I left for work this morning and the location of the tree on the wall is in a bad place for me to get directly in front of it for a good picture. I think you can still see it okay, though.

The idea came to me when I was desperately searching for a craft to do for Christmas. I have a lot of free time while at work, when both of the kids are napping, and I was bit by the craft bug! This was the perfect thing for me. I started by sketching out all of my ideas for each of the pockets you see on the tree. Each pocket is 3 inches by 4 inches in size, with the tree measuring just under 5 feet (including the star and trunk)! Wohoo!

After I sketched out my ideas, I started the task of creating and cutting out little designs for the pockets out of felt. I glued each piece on to the pockets with felt glue, which worked wonderfully. Next, I cut out the tree and pinned the pockets onto the tree in the order we wanted them in. I found a fabric pencil to lightly sketch my numbers onto the tree, and individually stitched each number onto the tree. After I added the numbers, I stitched the pockets into place. Did I forget to mention that I do not own a sewing machine? As I said in the beginning, this was a true labor of love. :)

Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I am a serious perfectionist. I found several numbers and pockets that were not straight enough for me. Knowing I was going to be living with this on my wall for years and years to come, I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't fix the "imperfections," so I took apart about 10 numbers and 15 pockets and repositioned them in the right places.

I did what is called a "blanket stitch" to sew the front and back of the tree together, the star and also the trunk. This took an incredible amount of patience, as it was tedious and annoying at times, but I accomplished it! This helped give the tree a nice finished look, especially without a sewing machine to help me out.

The only thing I have left to do is come up with an appropriate "counter" to mark each of the passing days. For the time being (since we just put it up yesterday and are leaving town this week), we are using a red ball-point pen. :) We have all sorts of ideas for the coming years, but this will do just fine for now.

I am very proud of my advent tree and hope it will be a treasured heirloom for years to come. For all of you living in Portland, I will be packing it into my suitcase so I can show you when we see you - I have to show it off a little bit. ;)