Before I begin, a big HI to everyone who is popping in from my podcast at Canton Village Quiltworks! Thanks so much to Jackie for the fun interview, and make sure and go over to her blog and enter the giveaway to win some of my fabric.
While we're talking about fabric, the winner of the birdie giveaway is Kim at All Consuming - congrats Kim! Which is really funny because not only was it her birthday yesterday but I found out that she knows all these girls I went to school with.. but you don't want to know all of that, you want a tutorial!
Ok peeps, 'tis the season and I have to admit that this year I am not feeling very festive for various reasons. So I thought it was time to get in the spirit, and I hunted around in my sewing room for Unfinished Objects That Could Become Ornaments. (Every sewing room has some of these wether you want to admit it or not!) I have started this tutorial from scratch so that you can make these yourself but you could apply a similar principle to all sorts of bits from your sewing room. This is what we're making:
It's a paper pieced star ornament. I particularly like the Bob the Christmas Fish. Ho, ho ho....
The first thing you need to do is decide on your shape. I have used pentagons with 1" sides, because I happen to be working with those on something else. You could use any size pentagons, or even hexagons if you wanted:
Imagine how cute those would be stuffed and hanging on your Christmas tree! If you don't have a pentagon shape, the best thing to do to get your template is to draw a hexagon, and then draw two lines upwards from two of the edges like this:
Otherwise use hexagons, or whatever other shape takes your fancy.
For my star, I have used a hexagon in the centre, surrounded by six pentagons. You will need to make 12 paper templates of the pentagon, and two hexagons, so you have enough for both sides of the star. I used a stiff cartridge paper for mine, but you can use a thin cardboard or even copy paper if you are desperate.
Now I know there are a million ways to paper piece, this is just the way I made this star!
When you have cut all your paper pieces out, cut a piece of fabric for each paper shape and baste the fabric over the paper. I was not organised and didn't take pictures of this bit, but you can get the idea from the pictures to come.
Place the first two pieces to be sewn right sides together and take small stitches through the top of each piece of fabric.
Sew all the pentagons around the centre hexagon until you have a completed star.
When both your stars are done, unpick the basting stitches and remove the papers.
Put the two stars right sides together and take small stitches through the edges of the seams again.
When you have done two sides, open the seams up a little and put a doubled over piece of ribbon inside at one point.
Close the seam up and hold the point together while you stitch around the point and sew the ribbon in. If you like you can use a pin.
When you have sewn around the point, cut the ends off the ribbon to make turning easier.
Sew until you have only two seams left to stitch.
Turn the star right side out and make certain to push all the points out using a knitting needle or similar.
Stuff the star with polyfill or leftover wadding through the opening.
Slipstitch the opening closed and you are done!
Get festive!
