how to make fabric scandinavian stars
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How to make fabric scandinavian star decorations

I pin so many papercrafts each year and don’t always get round to making them, but this time I’d seen some Scandinavian star decorations made from fabric. I thought I’d have a go at making them – and it turns out N’s a fan (mainly to throw them around because they feel nice and puffy).

how to make fabric scandinavian stars

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The fabric scandinavian stars are so much more versatile than paper as you can bring them out year after year. You can use them as Christmas tree decorations, pile them in a basket or sprinkle them over the Christmas table. I think they’d also look great as bunting.

I made the from Christmas fabric, but you could make them in pastels and have them hanging from a mobile in a baby’s room, or in sparkly fabric (or pretty paper) as wall hangings at a party.

To make these fabric stars you just need the fabric, scissors and maybe a bit of fabric glue* if you have slippy fabric or want to make sure the folds stay in place. There’s no sewing needed, so they’re easy enough for anyone to make.

If you want to get the hang of them first, just use paper. It’s a good way to make sure you’re getting the hang of folding the points, but also to make sure you’ve got the outer edges of the folded strips the right way so everything’s consistently neat when finished. But the folding isn’t hard, so if you’re confident, just got straight to fabric.

What fabric to use to make a scandinavian star?

My tips would be stick with a cotton fabric, and not one that’s too thick. My first attempt was made with some thicker tartan fabric, and it was just too thick to fold nicely and stay tucked in. They look better with sharper points, so a standard cotton works better and stick with the same type of material for all 4 strips.

If your fabric does have a tendency to come a bit loose, a bit of fabric glue should help.

Fat quarters are perfect, you can get a couple of strips out of them with some leftover. So you can choose one fabric pattern and colour, or like mine choose 2 coordinating fabrics. I’ve also seen really multicoloured stars, made using 4 different fabrics.

How to make a fabric Scandinavian star

Materials needed

Fat quarters – choose 2 or 4 coordinating colours or patterns
Scissors
Fabric glue if needed.

Instructions for making fabric stars

1, Iron your fabric then cut 4 pieces of fabric to 8cm x 30 cm in size

cut out material tartan

2. Lay fabric right side down. Fold each rectangle in half lengthways wrong sides meeting, and iron

folding over in half material

3, Open up and fold in the two long edges into the centre line, and iron.

fold outside edges into centre fold line

4. Fold in half lengthways again – so they should be long strips like double fold bias binding.

folded fabric like handmade binding

5, Take each strip and fold almost in half. There should be about 1cm overhang

folded material lengths in half

6, Place them in a square with the shorter part of the folds on the top.

7, Weave the 4 together in a square. Do this by opening up one fold to put another folded strip in. Then move to the next strip to slot in. Work round the square shape so each sits in another folded strip and is interlocked.

slot one folded piece under another
go round the 4 folding each between another folded piece

8, Pull each so the woven square is tight together.

pull in the interlocked fabric tight

9, Flip the joined together square over. Then fold one longer part back over the square, and repeat in turn for the 4 longer strips. The 4th one needs to feed underneath to hold it in place.

fold long lengths back on themselves
fold remaining back
slot final length under to hold

11, Make the star point for each strip. Fold into a triangle, fold to make the other half of the triangle, then fold back to double up.

fold length to a triangle
fold to a point of the star

12, Tuck the end into the square centre to hold the star point in place. You might need to trim if there’s too much fabric. If it won’t stay in place, add a drop of fabric glue to stick it.

slip excess fabric under to hold
visible point for scandinavian star

13, Repeat with each of the remaining strips to make the points of the star. Give the points an iron to help keep them in place.

completed tartan scandinavian star

15, if you want, add thread to hand the star off the Christmas tree, or attach a number of stars to ribbon to create bunting.

Top tips:

To keep your star tight and neat you need to have all your starting strips facing the same way. So with your folded strips, you want to set them out in the square with the outside of the folds (the open sides) facing out of the square.

Stick with coordinating colours or patterns.

To poke in the ends of the points, try using a small lolly stick or chopstick – they’re smaller than a finger, so are less unlikely to loosen the woven centre.

navy and white christmas scandinavian star

Why not try these other seasonal crafts:

Let me know how you get on making these yourself.

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