My Christmas Project

I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to make an advent calender but knowing I would not get it done before this week, I decided I would make one for the twelve days before Christmas. The project went as follows

1 - Buy the material you want to use. I decided I wanted two different materials. I've seen this done also with brown shipping paper decorated. I believe the brown shipping paper could be cheaper but would not last as many years.
2 - I choose what size I wanted to make the bags, remembering that I would loose some of the size when I made sewed because of the seams. I actually used a piece of paper folded as my guide. I did not spend the time cutting perfectly and I will explain later why.
3 - I went and used my moms sewing machine. I cut most of the bags on the fold of the material so I only had to sow two sides. You want to pin it inside out and sew it.
4 - Once you are done you can turn it right side out.
5- I did not spend the time cutting it straight and making the sewing perfect because you can not easily notice any issues once you are done. Some of my lines were far from perfect because I did not pay enough attention and sewed really fast but you would never know. I didn't even take the time to make the tops straight because it just does not matter that much. Unless someone takes everything out of it and inspects it closely, they would never know.
6 - The last few days I bought stuff to put in the bags. I filled them up then tied the top off with yarn.
7 - I tied two strands of yarn to the bar that the curtain like things hang off of (sorry can't remember the technical terms right now). I then used clothespins given to me at my bridal shower and pinned the bags to the strands of yarn I hung across.

You could hang them many different ways and in many different locations but I decided to use yarn across the window leading to the patio due to size and accessibility. I was going to originally put it in the bedroom but decided it would be to hard to get to daily and the window was not long enough length wise. Also, yarn is not the strongest material so the bags did pull it down quite a bit. I tied the yarn tight enough to bring it up a bit but did not want to put too much pressure on the yarn and the bar. The yarn is sagging a lot more than I originally planned for it to, but everything still looks great so I am not worried about it. In fact, it probably looks better sagging that much.

I hope to continue to do this every year. If I get tired of it, I will just change the material or get even more creative. One lady made Santa hats and filled them and it was so cute. Now that's an idea for when I start developing my crafting skills a bit more.

Well....happy Hanukkah beginning tomorrow :)