huge, fabric, advent, candles, wall hanging

Does that title make any sense?

Well on Wednesday morning at 8 am I get a call from our Pastor.

He asked me to make some large fabric hanging candles for Advent to put behind the band where the contemporary worship service meets (in the fellowship hall.) Find out about advent candles on Wikipedia

He first asks for 5--6 feet tall candles, I say I will think about it and let him know.

At 9 am Zeke and I are heading off to Hickory Walmart to get some cheap fabric- yes they are the only walmart nearby that has fabric. Its much cheaper then going to a quilt shop and paying $4.99++ a yard. I got 1 yard of pink at $1.99 yd and 3 yards purple for $2.99 yd. MUCH better.

I started with the pink candle since it is not needed until week 3 (this sunday is week 2- so we are a bit behind.) I figured this will give me time to get more material if I mess it up.

This is what I came up with after finding out that 4~ feet would be ok.

first try- not sewn together- 3 pieces

I got all 4 together on Thursday. I used the length of the salvage to salvage for the length of the candle and made them ~18inches wide.

The taper piece at the top I took a 18"x8 inches and cut a 45 degree angle.

For all pieces I folded over the edge and just sewed a straight seam. 

Now I had a problem.... I added hooks but I needed a way to stiffen the tops to that it would stay up when hung. 

I put out a distress call to 2 friends who I thought might have something for this- interfacing or starch.

MC was the life saver. She makes crocheted ornaments and uses this glue stuff (that washes out.)

You first get your fabric wet so it will soak up the glue. Then you mix the glue 50/50 with water and spread it over the fabric.

all pieces drying and stiffening 

See the hooks? I also added a piece of 3M removable velcro at the top on the wick for extra stability.  

But it dried stiff enough not to worry about that.

I also added the velcro to the flames to hang them that way.

I used some parchment paper so the felt would feed easier. It was my first time using it and I liked it. The paper gets perforated and easy to remove.

Done on the kitchen floor. You can see where the glue is  and it will remain that way- but thats ok. It washes out. I'm going to take these back after Christmas and quilt them for next year.

to give it some scale.

All candles done, blog posted by 9:30 pm Friday.

Phew! what a busy few days (all done during naps and at night)

I'm impressed with myself- its the first time I did something like this.

I get a pat on the back!

UPDATE: they have a new home here