DIY Advent Calendar Pillow
It’s December 1st! Time to break out the Advent Calendars & let the official countdown to Christmas begin. There are so many cute & original ways to count down to the big day, like this Advent Pillow from Ballard. In fact, it’s $69 worth of cute.
But, I’m just not the type of girl to spend $69 on a pillow when I can make it myself for, oh…around $5 or so. And since I know some of you are a lot like me, I’m sharing the How-To for my version.
I used unbleached muslin again, like I have for other pillows, & cut the size I needed to fit my down insert.
Then, I made some rows using 4 strips of thin black-checked ribbon, pinned in place, then sewn.
My handy letter & number stamps I bought a few years ago at Hobby Lobby worked perfectly for stamping on the numbers.
Once that was done, I made some DIY “Baker’s Twine” using natural-colored twine & these instructions. 
Then, I sewed a 12-inch piece of the twine above each number.
Next, I made a little wreath from some green felt. I cut two “donuts” out of the felt using my ribbon spool as a pattern, then sewed around the edges with embroidery floss, stuffing the wreath with a tiny bit of poly-fil.
After that, I just sewed the pillow together & tied the wreath on place. Now each day, we can tie the wreath onto the corresponding day of December!
My kids are loving it. Hope you do, too! I’ll be sharing it with a few of these parties. Another Christmas pillow tutorial is coming soon along with more Christmas decorating ideas (if I can get it all up!).
December 1, 2011 @ 2:19 pm
Truly, truly cute! This one will be one more thing pinned to my list of things to do!
December 2, 2011 @ 3:14 am
This is really cute! You did a great job. I hope you'll stop by The Corson Cottage and share it at our {Home for the Holidays} link party:) Carrie
http://thecorsoncottage.blogspot.com/2011/12/home-for-holidays-link-party.html
December 2, 2011 @ 6:34 am
Fantastic knock off.
I'd love for you to share this project over at my Inspiration Party at Simply Christmas ~ http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com/2011/12/inspiration-friday.html
December 2, 2011 @ 12:06 pm
You are brilliant! Love the pillow! Love your frugalness flair!
Enjoy the countdown!
Hugs
Becky
December 2, 2011 @ 6:17 pm
I love this idea. I've never seen an advent pillow before. It's so cute!
I would love for you to submit this to the Make and Takes spotlight page–http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight
December 2, 2011 @ 6:51 pm
This is absolutely adorable Julie! Thanks for the tutorial 🙂
December 3, 2011 @ 2:41 am
Oh that's so cute, I love it!
December 3, 2011 @ 12:44 pm
I LOVE this! it may be after the first…but I just might hjace to do this anyway for this year! Super cute!! 🙂
Would LOVE for you to link up to our "Home For The Holidays" link party!
http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com/2011/11/home-for-holidays-link-party-4.html
December 3, 2011 @ 2:26 pm
This is such a great idea! LOVE!! Thanks for sharing!
December 3, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
I want one! And I don't even have any little kids at home. Wow, you out did yourself on this one, super, duper cute. I pinned it of course!
December 3, 2011 @ 9:00 pm
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
Bye,
Marian
December 4, 2011 @ 2:47 am
Oh my gosh this is definitely my favorite Christmas countdown!!! I am going to have to make one too 🙂 Thanks for sharing!!
December 4, 2011 @ 4:09 am
GOODNESS. I can hardly get over how stinkin' cute this is!!! Found you on TT&J features (p.s. you were my fave;)
December 12, 2011 @ 4:37 pm
Wow! You are a Christmas crafting genius! So glad I found your project via Centsational Girl.
Please stop by for a visit to my blog. I am currently in the midst of a Gifts to Make series.
Be Merry and Bright!
November 25, 2012 @ 8:13 pm
I've never seen anything like this! What a cute idea. I'm a beginner sewist, but with your clear directions, I think I could create this someday. Definitely pinning! Thanks. -Lauren
December 9, 2012 @ 2:06 am
I love love love this! I saw this last year and was not able to make it, but I did this year. My pillowI is not exactly like yours, but I couldn't have done it without you. I am linking your tutorial to my blog post.