My embroidered advent calendar for 2024 – Day 1

A few years ago I discovered a blog where someone had sewn a beautiful Advent calendar.
I actually wanted to sew it last year, but my sewing machine broke down.
The only store in the area that repairs my brand had so many orders that the machine couldn’t be repaired until this year.

I knew more or less what I wanted my calendar to look like and then looked for embroidery files on the Internet.
And I found them. I wanted to have a different embroidery every day.
But I misjudged the time!!!
I had expected a relaxed 3, maximum 4 days, but it took me 25-30 hours to complete the whole calendar.
It had to be finished on Saturday because I was giving it away. It was therefore very stressful.
The calendar was finished on Saturday night at 1am 😀

Here is day 1

Avent calendar Cushion 01

I will post the link to the blog of the calendar on the last day.
So it will be a little surprise when you see the whole thing.
And also write a tutorial on how I sewed it.
Maybe someone will like it as much as I did and want to make this calendar too. ❤

DIY Make a pillow look like a gift – Tutorial

Pillow Giftl 20

I saw those pillows on Pinterest last year. I liked them so much I wanted to sew them.
Actually, they’re meant for Christmas, which will last forever until next time hehe
But I always forgot to do this tutorial. Better late than never 😀

Something fun about it. I found the pillows on Pinterest first with my cell phone. Then I bought the fabric (canvas) and the zippers, copied the picture to my iPad and took it with me to my sewing course. Only when I wanted to show the teacher the now larger picture on the tablet, I saw that the pillows are not sewn but knitted.

My cushions have the approximate size 24 x 16 inch.
If you want to copy my tutorial, you have to make the bows bigger or smaller depending on the size of your cushions.

First start with the ” bands “.

Pillow Giftl 00

Sew the band together on the left side. Then turn it to the right. Lay the band so that the seam is at the back and iron it. I then triple-stitched both edges.

Pillow Giftl 01

Sew the two bands to the fabric you cut for the pillow.

Pillow Giftl 02

Here comes the bow. Sew together on the left side and turn to the right. Decorate the edge with the triple stitch. Then sew the bow together

Pillow Giftl 03

Pillow Giftl 04

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Now the bow should also look like a bow. Press the middle together with your fingers and sew together.

Pillow Giftl 06

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To make your pillow look even more like a gift, it also needs the bands on the bow.

I have tried it with different widths and have decided for this width.

Pillow Giftl 08

Because the strip on the bow looked too wide, I folded it in half. Place the strip around the bow so that it is the same length at both ends.

Pillow Giftl 09

Now hold the strip tightly around the bow and mark it with pins.

Pillow Giftl 11

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Sew on 2 strips of velcro on the back side at the marking. Don’t cut the velcro too small so you have some room to adjust later.

Pillow Giftl 15

Because I also want to attach the bow to the pillow with velcro, I put a piece of velcro on the back of the ribbon. Always make sure to take the “hard” part of the velcro for it!

If you want to wash the pillowcase, simply take off the bow and the fluffy part of the velcro won’t damage your other clothes.

Pillow Giftl 16

Now you have to decide WHERE to put your bow on the pillow!!!
Just try different places and where you like it best, make a mark and sew the counterpart of the velcro.

Pillow Giftl 17

If you need to shorten the band from the bow, do it now and sew the ends.

Then you can sew the pillowcase and zipper.

Your pillowcase is DONE 🙂

Pillow Giftl 19

You want to know how I made those three pillows with the Christmas songs?

I found a free font on the Internet called “Christmas”. I mirrored the writing and printed it out in enormous size. Then I applied the writing and decorated it a little, depending on the song.

Whoever made the knitted pillows on Pinterest, thanks for the inspiration ❤ ❤ ❤