life {illustrated}: Vintage Advent Garland

Dec 17, 2012

Vintage Advent Garland

I know, I know...

It's super late to be posting an Advent garland idea. I had started a different Advent calendar at the beginning of the month but didn't really love it. And then I saw this idea on pinterest.

By the way, you know how there is usually a list of the most popular words or phrases of the year towards the ends of December? I think the phrase "I saw it on pinterest" will be pretty high on the list.

Anyway, when I came across Miss Mustard Seed's vintage Advent garland, I immediately made plans to make one of my own. I thought to myself, "Oh, this looks super easy! And fun!"

Wrong.

Have you ever tried to print on fabric? Yes, I followed the instructions, and yes I tried everything I could think of to get it to go through the printer, and it just wouldn't. I tried troubleshooting via Google search, but that got me nowhere. Apparently, I am the only one who has problems printing on fabric. I was so frustrated that I almost posted something on my Facebook status about it, but I kept thinking of Proverbs 20:11.

Instead, I smacked the printer and started baking something in the kitchen.

I came back a few hours later with some much thinner fabric, and it went right through the printer.

And the rest of the project was super easy and fun.

In a nutshell, you just download vintage graphics (all mine came from The Graphics Fairy), crop and resize them to 3 1/2 x 5 inches, and add numbers in the corners. Print them on fabric.

How do you print on fabric?

Just cut down a piece of freezer paper and your fabric to 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Iron the waxy side of the freezer paper to the back of the fabric (to make it stable enough to feed through the printer). Put your fabric in the printer so the images will print on the fabric side.

I printed four images per page and cut them out. I cut the heavier fabric (the stuff that wouldn't fit through the printer) for the backs of the pockets.

After sandwiching the ribbons in between the pocket pieces, sew around the sides and bottom to create the pocket.

Fill the pockets with goodies or slips of paper with Advent activities written on them for your family to enjoy. You can begin the Advent season with a full garland and untie a pocket each day, or you can start with one pocket and add to the garland throughout the month. We are going to leave our garland up all season. It's just too pretty to take down!