Advent Calendar Envelopes

I made these last year, after Christmas, so they've been waiting to get some use.

I saw the idea from a lot of different sources last year, and it's been too long to remember to give everyone credit.

But basically homemade pouches of some kind to count down the days of December to Christmas.

I chose to make mine little envelopes.

I used white flannel scraps for the bodies.

Using freezer paper and fabric paint, I painted each one with the numbers 1-25.  I switched with even days being green, and odd days being red.

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 For the triangular flap, I used left over Moda turnover halves--the fabric collection is Figgy Pudding.

I backed the triangles with red, sewing right sides together.  Then I flipped them and top stitched the edges in red.

To close the envelopes, I just zig-zagged the sides in red, so the raw edges are hanging out.

When I attached the triangle flaps, I also sewed a loop of thin white ribbon so they could hang.

I originally planned on hopefully stringing them across a mantle or down a banister on a flight of stairs.  Last year when I made it, we didn't know what state we'd be living in, let alone which house.  So I do have a mantle, but my envelopes were too big I thought and would feel cluttered, especially with hanging Christmas stockings too.

So I went with an advent calendar christmas tree.

This little tree was purchased the first year we were married, and it's been good with moving every year.

But I found a big 7 foot tree this summer at a garage sale for $10.00 so this little guy was demoted to an accessory tree I guess.

I set it up in the basement.  I decided not to put all the chocolates in each envelope, as my two-year-old would figure it out and eat them all early on, probably tearing down the tree in the process.  So I'll just have to load the chocolates each day I guess.

But I thought it turned out cute using my envelopes as ornaments.  Maybe one day they can be part of a stair garland going down a banister or something.