Advent Calendar

I finally finished sewing 24 mini stockings for our Advent Calendar... just in time! I used a combination of embellishments for the front of each stocking; Embroidery, Iron-on Motifs and Applique;

I was the very lucky winner of Lisa's giveaway, over at The Red Thread. I absolutely love her designs. I have bought Sweetie Petites doll kits from her in the past and I adore her Christmas motifs, they are so adorable. I chose a Christmas Tree (see above), a Pudding...

...a Gingerbread Man and a Present with rosy cheeks;

I went to Spotlight on Monday to buy some more, but they didn't have any! I found her other beautiful products (I can't wait to make her Stitch & Sew Angel) ... but no motifs! They must have sold out! I was so disappointed and even had the staff running around checking other sections, just in case.

I knew I definitely would not have time to do embroidery on the 20 other mini stockings. In fact, I only ended up embroidering 8...

But I did find some fabric that had little Christmas-themed pictures in red and white squares, so I used those to finish off the rest of the stockings today;

It was a rush-job and definitely a compromise, as the first half of the calendar looks lovely and colourful and cute and the second half looks... pretty average! I wanted all the stockings finished, so my girls have an understanding of how far away Christmas is... But I think I will switch in Lisa's motifs as we near the end, so we can see those cute little faces again... especially that little present with the rosy cheeks, love her!

In the meantime... Elly had a great time filling them with chocolate coins and 'christmas eggs';

(I know, they look remarkably similar to Easter Eggs, except the packet said 'Christmas Eggs'! What's next, Easter Stockings?). There's also a little slip of paper inside each stocking, with a little activity we can do together in the lead up to Christmas.... I can't believe tomorrow is the 1st of December!