Advent Calendar Sew Along – Binding

You can find the first section of this series here:

Cutting and Quilting

So you’ve finished the quilting on your advent calendar tree base and your ready to apply the binding. I made my binding tape from this fabric.

This one fits my blue and purple color scheme and it reminded me of icy snow flakes. If you have never made your own bias tape binding before, now is the time to try! It’s such a great fun way to add a little interest to projects. By far my favorite tutorial for making the binding is Dana Made It: Understanding Bias and making Bias Tape. However, if you’ve never sewn bias binding before, this project is a tricky one to start with. The curves and sharp corners make it harder than most. You have several different options for sewing it on and  Dana Made It also has a good explaination of your choices: How to Sew Bias Tape

I opted to use lots and lots of pins when sewing my bias tape.

I also decided to hand sew the tape during the final step since it gave me more control. Hand sewing all those curves and corners made it so I could definitely cover up the stitching from the other side. There are a ton of tutorials on mitered corners out there, but the Prudent Baby tutorial is a good place to start.

However, it’s a lot harder to find instructions on inverted or inside corners. Some of my corners turned out fairly crisp.

But several didn’t. If I was to do it again, I might try the instructions on this tutorial. Please let me know if you’ve seen another good tutorial for this!

I love the point on the top. :)

Now it’s time to add buttons. I knew I wanted one on each tree point. I didn’t want one at the top because I’m going to put a snap for a star topper for Christmas Day. I wanted to leave a little room under each button and I didn’t want it to look to organized. My Christmas trees never have ornaments in a row! They are always randomly scattered and I wanted to replicate that.

I used purple and clear (affiliate links)  sparkly buttons in both 5/8″ and 3/4″ size. All of my ornaments will be blue and purple felt so I chose these to stay in my color theme.

Next up is sewing ornaments, which I have to admit has been so much fun.

Please share your advent calendar projects in the comments below.

Grab The Button:

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