Project: Adventing Time Felt Ornament

Hello, December! Today I start a series called Craft a Song of Christmas, and it will bring all kinds of crafty goodness and Christmas music! To start, you're gonna need to listen to some holiday tunes. My favorites are Sufjan's Songs for Christmas and Silver and Gold, with a nice helping of retro tunes from FaLaLaLaLa. Are you now in good holiday cheer? Good. Because we need a little Christmas.

Starting with an obscure tune that is one of my favorites. Adventing Time is a song written and performed mainly by children, and it's all about this time of preparing for Christmas. For the coming of Jesus, our Savior. You can listen to it here.

We often talk of Advent calendars, which count down the days until the 25th, but this is more about the lighting of candles, usually on the Sundays leading to the big day and preparing our hearts. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, when the first purple candle is lit. It's an old tradition blended with a new song, and I like that. I also like things with faces, so my Advent wreath ornament comes with a smile!



Here's what you need to make one:

Wool Blend Felt (I used BenzieBazaar felt - see note below)
Embroidery Floss (I used DMC 3821, 604, 3746, 937, 471 and 310)
Needle
Scissors
Pinking or Scallop Shears (optional)
Adventing Time Pattern PDF

A Note on Wool Blend Felt: This December, all of my felt projects are using felt provided by BenzieBazaar. I am seriously smitten with this felt! It's almost, almost as lovely as 100% wool, but at a fraction of the cost. By purchasing the Glitter and Glass collection, plus a small piece of Purple and Seaside, you'll have all that you need to make all of the small felt projects this month (at least six ornaments and two gift toppers!).



Cut out all of the pieces as shown. Traditionally, Advent candles have three purple, and one pink, but you can adapt this if you want.

Also, as you can see, I cut out the inner backing piece with scallop shears. You can do this with pinking shears or with regular scissors if you don't have scissors like this.



Embroider the details onto the wreath. You can follow the pattern exactly, or use it as a guide. The face is french or colonial knots the smile is a scallop (like a fly stitch), and the greenery is fly stitches. You can learn how to make fly stitches here. All were stitched with three strands.



Next, I find it helpful to lay out all of the pieces to see how this will go together before I start stitching. It doesn't need to be exact, because you'll remove them when you start working, but it gives you a sense of what you're aiming for.



Stitch the pieces onto the smaller backing using two strands. Come up from the back on the backing almost under the piece you're attaching. Then go down through both layers of felt right at the edge. This is easier than trying to come up through both, because things move that way.



To attach the flames, use a single stitch in the center. It holds them in place, and creates a little accent in there.



Stitch the appliqued backing to the larger backing with running stitch. If you use embroidery floss that matches the larger backing, it has a nice contrast on the front, while giving the stitches on the back a low profile.



Choose a color of embroidery floss for your hanger, and take a stitch through the larger backing only.



Tie the floss together with a knot, and trim the ends. You're ornament is ready to prepare for Christmas!




Are you as excited about this season as I am? Christmas comes with lots of "extras" but if we can take moments here and there to remember what we're remembering, it makes it so much better. This is a season about anticipating and waiting for God to come. Whoa. That's a big reason to celebrate!