Learn how to sew a fabric advent calendar with pockets to hang on a door or a wall.

This Christmas advent calendar can be used to countdown the days by moving an item down each day. It can also be used to place special ornaments, treats, and notes for each day leading up to Christmas.

Deck the Home this Holiday Season

Remember the At Home DIY Challenges I did all year? Now the challenges are Deck the Home Challenges! Just in time for the Holidays!

We will have a new challenge every Sunday for the next 5 weeks! Woot Woot!

This week’s challenge: Door Decor!

At the bottom of this post you’ll find a collection of door decor to help inspire you to DIY this Holiday Season!

Advent Calendar Christmas Countdown

You know I have a thing for Christmas Countdowns, right? I would even say I have a Christmas Countdown collection! Every year I like to make one to add to my collection.

With this week’s challenge being door decor, I thought why not make an advent calendar to hang on a door!

And I knew exactly where I would put it! On Gabrielle’s door! Her bedroom door is at the end of the hallway. The perfect location to add some festive decor! hehe

This post also contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

How to sew a fabric advent calendar with pockets

Supplies:

• 2 Tea towels (17.5″ x 27″)  in coordinating colors. (One will be the main piece and the other will be transformed into pockets.) Or 1 tea towel and a canvas drop cloth.
• Dowel (48″ long and 5/8″ in diameter)
• Small numbers (I used wooden numbers.)
• Coordinating thread
• Jute twine
• Christmas item (something small that will fit into the pockets)
• Popsicle stick or a small piece of wood.
• Wax paper

Tools:

• Scissors
• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Pins
• Glue gun
• Hand saw

Instructions:

Step 1: Fold back the top of the buffalo plaid tea towel 2″ and pin it.

Step 2: Sew the fold down with red thread. This will be where the dowel will slide into.

Step 3: Using fabric scissors, cut 5 strips of 17″ x 4″ out of the natural tea towel. (In my case, I used an old natural curtain that is the same material as a canvas drop cloth.

Step 4: Press a 1/4″ seam around each strip. The strips will measure approximately 16″ x 3.15″.

Step 5: Cut the corner of the side flaps.

Step 6: Use a sewing machine to top stitch the top seam in beige. Do not sew the sides nor the bottom yet.

Step 7: Position the 5 strips centered on the buffalo plaid fabric 1.5″ apart and pin into place. I placed the top strip at 3.5″ from the top and the bottom one at 1.25″ from the bottom.

Step 8: Attach the strips to the buffalo plaid fabric by sewing the sides and bottom seams in beige. (Do not sew the top of the strips.)

When you come to sew the bottom, fold the rest of the fabric to give yourself some space.

Step 9: To make the pockets for the fabric advent calendar, at approximately every 3.2″, sew from bottom to top of each strip with beige thread. This will add 5 pockets per strip. To determine where to sew, use a ruler, make markings on it with a pencil, and transfer those markings onto the strips with a pencil.

Step 10:  Take out the numbers.
13x 1, 9x 2, 3x 3, 3x 4, 3x 5, 2x 6, 2x 7, 2x 8, 2x 9, 2x 0

Step 11: Place a small piece of wax paper inside the pocket and hot glue the numbers onto the pockets. Remove the wax paper when the hot glue has dried.

Step 12: Add a short popsicle stick or small piece of wood to the bottom of the small Christmas item, you have chosen to countdown the days until Christmas, with hot glue. (If you’d like to make your own reindeer, you can use a small wood slice to make a Rudolph like my daughter made.)

Step 13: Cut the dowel to 22″ using a hand saw.

Step 14: Insert the dowel into the top of the buffalo plaid fabric.

Step 15: Cut a piece of jute twine 32″ and attach it to each end of the dowel with knots.

Step 16: Hang the fabric advent calendar onto an over the door hook.

Fabric Christmas Countdown with pockets

Christmas Door Decor

I hope you enjoyed the fabric advent calendar project as much as I did making it!

If ever you are looking for an advent calendar that fits bigger treats, my wall mounted advent calendar would be the perfect solution.

Have a great day my friends!

Christine