Scandinavian Fabric Stars

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As soon as winter sets in, I get an overwhelming urge to make handicrafts. Felt, fabric, embroidery – you name it!  Yesterday I post on IG while making these stars, and since lots of people were asking me about them, I thought I’d do a quick little post!

I learned to make these through Pinterest, using a tutorial by a Danish blogger Named Sofie Legarth. If you use the translate feature on Google Chrome, it’s easy enough to follow along on her tutorial… but just in case you prefer English instructions, I thought I’d do a little tutorial here!

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Step 1: Choose 4 fabrics that you like together. It’s the perfect way to use up quilting cotton – I have a huge stash of fat quarters that I bought in Japan before I started sewing clothes!

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Pictured: Front and back of the same ornaments. I like how the variation of a large print or stripe show differently on each side!

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Step 2: Cut 8cm x 30cm rectangles (about 12″ x 3 1/4″).  I like to stack up several layers of fabric so I can cut them all at once!

Step 3: Iron the stripes so they are like double-fold bias tape. (In half, then fold the edges in to the centre, and iron again.)

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Step 4: Fold the strips almost in half, so one end is a few centimeters longer than the other. Start weaving them together, so that each strip is sandwiching the previous one. Pull the ends of the last strip through the loop of the first.

Step 5: Pull the strips snug. It should now hold together on it’s own.

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Step 6: Flip it over, and weave the long ends together (just like folding down the top of a cardboard box).

Step 7: Pull snug.

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Step 8: In turn, fold each of the strips into a triangular point.

Step 9: Fold the point in half, and tuck the long end into the ornament with a finger.

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Step 10: Ta-da! Done. Give it a good press with a hot iron and steam to lock the folds in place.

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Step 11: Use embroidery floss to sew on a loop, then hang it up! I like to use a dark green floss to the loop blends into the tree, but if you were making a garland you might choose a different colour.

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I’ve made about 20 this year, and I’ll give away half of them to friends and coworkers. They are the perfect size to tuck in a card, and they are a lot quicker than most ornaments to make!

Posting this crafty tutorial is taking me back to one of my first ever blog posts, back in November 2012, when I posted about how to make a felted ball ornament using a thrifted sweater. I didn’t even sew clothes back then! Crafting A Rainbow started off literally about crafting, before sewing took hold a few months later!

Do you have a favourite ornament to make and give? I’m looking for something new to give to my family this year!


85 thoughts on “Scandinavian Fabric Stars

  1. So cute! I’ll have to try this out for sure. I don’t have a standard ornament that I make, it usually depends on my mood/time constraints. I’ve done some that are hand painted balls, I did a set of Celtic knot ones from polymer clay one year (sadly, I lost those), one year I designed and sewed a bunch of felt ones, and I think this year, I’m going to go stereotypical and do the baby footprint in the salt dough for our moms.

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    1. A baby footprint sounds like a winner! And nice and easy, I imagine!😉 Your polymer clay ornaments sound intrieguing… I’ve got some old Fimo at my parents that needs using!

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    1. I don’t know what I ever thought I was going to do with hundreds of fat quarters, but now that I’ve hoarded them for years, it’s always nice to find ways to make the fabric shine!

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  2. This takes me back, I used to do these with gift strings. I don’t know if it would work with fabric, but we used to pull a twist on one side to get sort of a bow effect on one or both sides (depending on the use of the ornament). (It was so hard to describe so I googled it http://pysselmani.blogg.se/2012/december/lucka-nr-12-stjarnor-av-presentsnore-2.html). I never thought of making them with fabric though, this will be a great craft for my kids soon.

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    1. Same with me; some years ago I made a bunch of the papery spatial ones. The name of those stars is Froebel star. I never thought of making them out of fabric straps. Thank you for showing!

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    2. I’ve seent hat kind of 3-d effect in paper stars – it would be fun to see if it would work in fabric too! The do pack away nicely for the next year though – nothing to squish or break!😉

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  3. I’m with you! It’s the perfect time of year to do a sewing craft! I love these and plan on trying one of my own. Thanks for the lovely idea!

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    1. We need a club for people who mistakenly thought they’d become quilted but ended up as garment sewists with too much quilting cotton!😉

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  4. I’ve been making Christmas jewellery for the past few years. I’ve been focusing mostly on tree earrings and pendants, but I think this year I will learn how to make snowflakes.

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    1. Oooh, thank you for reminding me to track down my festive FIMO earrings! I wonder where they all are? Do you give away your jewelery, or keep the precious all to yourself?

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  5. Thank you for sharing this neat idea–I have LOTS of adorable leftover quilting cotton from a paper piecing class earlier in the fall, and this is a great idea for using it all up!

    I did my first-ever ornament/decoration sewing this year: Sewaholic Stanley Trees for my family (and one for us to keep, naturally!). They are so precious! They’re also very easy to make, up until you decide to add the bows and bells.😉 And now my whip stitch is FIERCE after closing all those “petals” at the bottom of each tree, LOL.

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  6. I love making these! We made them with paper when I was a kid. I stumbled on the tutorial for fabric ones a few years ago.
    Your fabric choices are wonderful!

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  7. I love stars !!! and these are Fabulous. Thanks for showing us. All Y’all with fabric you don’t know what to do with….You can send it to me, I will happily put it into some quilts. 😉 😉

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  8. I am having a real hard time understanding on how to do these. Maybe it’s my old brain not being able to figure it out, it’s so bad that I even asked my husband it he could figure it out!!!. Would really like some help and wonder if there is a utube showing how it’s done.

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      1. In the recent post, she referenced the original that you can have your computer translate. It might be helpful. i also struggled a bit with some of the directions.

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  9. Every year for Christmas I make a different ornament from my grandson’s shirts n tee’s,etc. so this will be great My precious Trent past away 5 years ago today. I make several for the family as well. It’s a sad day,but I just got on to check messages from so many people sending their thoughts n prayers and saw this. Made me smile a little and thought nana found something to make for this Christmas with your tee’s. Thank you for sharing this.

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  10. These stars look fun to make – and great ti receive. Can’t wait to start chopping up fabric ….
    Thank you for the tutorial

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  11. I shared this to my personal page and lots of people have LOVED this idea, thank you so much for explaining so clearly how to make these XXX

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  12. How wonderful! My quilting guild is doing an exchange of needle books and/or needle holders. I am thinking that if I attach a pin back to one of the stars they could pin it to their shirt while they sew and it would be a nice place to put a needle while not in use.

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  13. stumbled on these stars a few days ago and sent it to our club leader. She said ‘would you demo them at our next meeting?’ I replied, if I can figure it out sure. I struggled at first but after 2, no problem. I’m up to 6 now and weaving away. Love them and everyone else thinks their pretty cute and they think I’m clever. Sssshhhh, don’t let them know. Our secret.

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  14. Years ago when I was dating my husband, his grandmother was in a nursing home. One of the patients would make these 3-d stars from wrapping paper. I still have a few that go on our tree every year. It will be a treat to make some out of fabric.

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    1. I have made the 3D German Stars for over 50 years. My aunt taught me and I’ve made them ever since. Paper, then dipped in wax and sprinkled with glitter. I used to sell them, 50 cents for six. Thought I was rich. You can make them out of ribbon or just about anything.

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  15. I love them. I have made quite a few so far. My pup has helped ‘un’fold one or two as well.😁😂 May I share your post please?💖

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    1. I think any good quality ribbon would work well, especially grosgrain. You would avoid the thickness of the bias fold so the star points might form more easily.

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  16. Been making these since grade school but back then they were made out of strips of paper, dipped in paraffin and glittered. Called German Stars back then.

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  17. The paper stars were called Moravian stars and have another step that gives them a 3 D appearance and then they are dipped in wax. I made 350 of them for our church tree and put the names of our families on the star. After Christmas families were encouraged to pick a star off the tree and be a prayer partner that year for that family and then return them the next Christmas.

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  18. Beautiful ornament. I love using a small calico pattern fabric, not necessarily Christmas. Found it difficult to understand in the beginning, but now I’m completely addicted and already ironing out my second batch. Thank you for this! Will be great gift toppers this year!

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  19. I saw these & thought they were cute so I made some to decorate the tree in the quilt shop where I work. I made different sizes by cutting smaller width strips. Customers loved them. We handed out your web address more than 50 times. People have made them to decorate packages, to hold place cards at the table and who knows what else. Did you say they are addictive?

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