This is the third post in a series to make this circles advent calendar – in this post I’ll describe how to make the star pocket at the top.
Other posts in this series:
- Materials, layout and design
- Making the background
- Sewing the star [This post]
- Sewing the circle pockets
- Putting it all together
You can download the circles advent calendar templates PDF here.
The star
The top of the calendar has a star which forms the twenty-fourth pocket. It’s a standalone pocket which is then attached to the point of the background triangle.
I spent a fair bit of time trying to get the star looking neat – my final instructions are a bit fiddly and involve some sewing by hand – much as I hate hand-sewing this was necessary to get neat points.
There’s no skimping here, really – the star is the focal point of the calendar and so it needs to look good. On the plus side, you only have to make one of them (unlike the pesky circle pockets – one to look forward to next!)
1. Cut the star front and star back from the felt.The back is just the same sized-star but with one of the points cut off; this will be the top.
2. Place the felt star on top of the wrong side of the star fabric and cut out the fabric all round leaving a 1cm (1/2″) allowance.
3. Fold the fabric at the tip of each point under the felt. Then fold the seam allowances along the sides of the point over the felt, as shown. Folding the tip removes the raw edge from the point, but it’s too bulky if you fold it over the felt. This way you should get crisp points.
4. Hand sew this in place, adding extra stitches to get neat points. Your hand sewing will be covered up later, so it doesn’t need to be neat, but you do want to get those star points looking neat, even and pointy.
5. Iron fusible web to the backing fabric and cut out the star shape, slightly inside the template. Iron it onto the back of the covered star. This will cover up any unsightly sewing.
6. Repeat this with the star back. This will be the back of the pocket so use the plain fabric for this. This doesn’t need to be as perfect.
7. Sew the back and front of the star pocket together, aligning the points carefully. I stitched this together by hand first to get everything matching up right, and then top stitched on the machine afterwards.
Set this to one side for later (don’t lose it!).
Next: Making the circle pockets.
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