Felt Ramadan surprise calendar
To get started you will need:
1 yard of 54 inch wide felt. 2 36 inch long 3/4 inch dowels. 8 pieces of 9"x12" felt. Number and letter stencils. Paint and brush for stencils. Glue gun (or good fabric glue). Wooden decorations for the end of the dowels. Whatever other little things you want to decorate the finished product with.
It is helpful to have a rotary cutter and guide... But of course scissors will work too. And you can buy numbers and letters in felt... But I am too cheap to do that!LOL
First:
You cut the 9x12 pieces into four 4 1/2x6 pieces for the pockets.
Second:
Square up your main piece of felt, making it about 34 inches wide. You will clip off the excess at the bottom later. Then, fold over the top and create a pocket for the dowel (an inch will do. Just glue it on the edge.
Third:
Stencil on your lettering across the top.
Fourth:
Lay out your pockets in rows of five alternating colors as you go. It is helpful to use a yardstick or some straight edge to keep you in line as you glue.
Fifth:
Once you have all those pesky pockets glued stencil on all your numbers.
Sixth:
Now you need to trim off the bottom leaving enough room for the lower dowel pocket. Make that pocket the same way you did the one on the top. Then, put the dowels through and glue on whatever you choose for the ends on the top and bottom dowels. Now they are snug in place.
Finally, add your decorations where you think they are needed and place a string on the top dowel to hang it. Then the fun part... Fill it with a little treat for every day of Ramadan! I will be wrapping mine since the pockets are open, but you could just glue a little velcro to the pocket if it suits you better:)
Happy Crafting!!! Insha'Allah someone will find this useful. If you make one of these or a date chain just send me a photo and I will post it, insha'Allah.
9 comments:
As-salaamu'alaykum wa Rahmatu Llahi wa Barakatuhu my dear sister,
Masha'Allah!! It looks amazing! And the tutorial is excellent. Jazak'Allah. I did the 'Ramadaan Surprise Box' this year, but insha'Allah this will be next years project.
I pray the children enjoy it.
Ma'salaama
Farhana
Assalaam Alaikum,
I have been thinking about doing something just like this!! I guess great minds really do think alike, LOL!!
Assalaamu Alaikum,
Some sisters have been talking about this kind of thing on the Muslimahsewing group on Yahoo. Great idea! And I love the no sew thing! But I don't own a glue gun. :o)
Thanks for such a great project! It seems easy enough for the kids to do the gluing part. At any rate I'm going to try it!
as-salaamu `alaykum Layla! It's been a lonnnnggg time. Hope you're doing well! I am doing this project this year and wanted to know what kind of paint you used. Jazaaki l-laahu khayran! :)
Ugh, you know I meant UmmLayla! That's what I get for nak'ing ;)
Walaikum Asalamu UmmZaynub,
Nice to hear from you... NAK??? You have a new one? do tell.
The paint I used was just that folk art paint for stenciling. I found that it was better for the stencils than fabric paint, and since it will never be washed I wasn't worried about it. Insha'Allah it will be a fun project for you and the kids:)
as-salaamu `alaykum! Yes, I've been quite overwhelmed for a while hence offline mostly. I had a little boy who will be 2 in September al-Hamdu li-laah :) But hitting the 4 kids mark was also the "I have no time for anything" mark.
So any old paint should be good? Since I'm making 4 I was going to order a really big container of gold paint from Oriental Trading along with my decorating supplies. :)
One more quick question-- what was the length of the finished product?
By the way, a tip for anyone else doing this project, watch out for the felt squares, I found they are not reliably always 9X12. Many of them were 9-1/2 X 12 and many were just under 12 inches too. Having a rotary cutter and a self-healing mat (and a ruler) is REALLY helpful!
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