September 2021 – Folded Fabric Stars

Yes Christmas is only 16 weeks away and if you plan on crafting for Christmas we all know from experience that is not much time.  My focus for Krafts with Kathy will be homemade Christmas ornaments for September thru December.  Change the fabric and you can make patriotic stars, change the fabric and you can make Halloween stars, and you get the picture.

 Materials Needed:

• 3 strips of cotton fabric 2” x 7” (All the same or 3 different patterns)
• 1 or 2 buttons (1/2” wide suggested) (2 hole preferred but 4 hole is ok)
• 8” length of twine or embroidery floss
• Hand sewing needle and thread
• Optional: iron, glue

Instructions:

1. Lay strip of fabric right side down, short end closest to you
2. Fold up bottom right corner to the left side of strip and line up fabric edges, creating a triangle.  Make sure the bottom corner has a sharp point.
   • I pressed the fold and each successive fold as I prefer crisp lines but it isn’t required.
3. Fold triangle up so that the sides align with the left edge of the strip
4. Fold again, aligning side of triangle with the right edge of the strip.
5. Continue folding the triangles until there is only a small flap of fabric left.
   • (Similar to how one would fold the American flag.)
6. Fold the flap into the folded triangle like a tab of a box. 
7. I pressed a little bit of the corner under (wrong sides together) before  tucking into the folded triangle and then pressed. A dab of glue at this point is optional.
8. Repeat the above instructions for the other 2 strips of fabric.

Assembly:

1. Place the 3 triangles in front of you with the short points of each triangle facing the middle and the long sides facing out.
   • There should be one triangle on the left, one on the right and the one in the middle should be on top with the short point facing the center of the 3 triangles.
2. Place the top (middle) triangle on top of the left triangle with the short point facing down.
3. Stack the right triangle on top aligning the short point of the top triangle with the side of triangle #2.
   • At this point your triangle should form a star shape.  You may need to fiddle with the placement of each of the triangles to get the shape that is most “star” like.
   • Option 1:  place a few hand stitches at strategic edges to keep the triangles in place
   • Option 2:  go straight to attaching buttons and skip the hand sewing. (This is what I did.)
4. Decide if you want 2 buttons or just 1 on the front.
   • 1 button – using regular sewing thread thread a longer piece of thread on the needle.  Leaving a tail of 4”-5” inches, tie a knot in the double strand of thread.               
   • Push the needle from the back of the star to the front coming up in the hole of the button and then go down the other hole and come out on the back.  Do this 3 or 4 times and tie off the thread. Clip ends of thread.
   • 2 button – Glue second button on back hiding knot from the thread.
   • If you are particularly handy with hand sewing you can sew both buttons onto the star at the same time.  Remember to hide the ends of the thread when you tie off.
5. Holding the twine bring it up under the top 2 triangles and tie a soft knot.
6. Tie a knot near the end of the twine forming a hanging lop.
7. A dab of glue will hold the twine in place if desired

Notes:

Decorative buttons can also be used in place of circular buttons.  Any size button is okay as long as you like the looks of the button on the star.

Make sure the fabric is tightly woven as fabric that unravels easily will do so leaving unsightly fringes or loose threads with all the folding.