Fat Star Pillow

I love this style of the star pillows.  It was my favorite type of my grandmother’s, too. 

**For this tutorial, I made a gathered side.  You can apply the same tutorial to do a flat side to the star pillows, omitting the steps of gathering and using an 82 inch strip of 4 inch fabric instead of 160 inch.**

Materials needed:

Half yard material
Batting/stuffing
Small scrap of contrasting material (or small scrap of the main material)
4 inch by 162 inch (or 82 inch if not gathering) of contrasting material
Two 1 1/8 inch cover buttons (found in the notion section)
Long needle
Thread
Star pattern foundation piece

Trace the star pattern foundation piece five times, with the shorter ends pointing together, making a large star.  This will be your star pattern

Cut out two stars using the pattern, and your strip for the sides.

 
I had to piece my long strip, since 162 inches is pretty ding dong long. 

If you are doing a gathered edge, like me, this is the only extra step:
Gather or ruffle the strip down both sides. 
You can do this by either basting and pulling the threads, using a ruffler foot, or gathering on your sewing machine or serger.  I have a tutorial for the latter here.   
Sew the ends, right sides facing, together to make a huge loop.

Pin the strip, right sides together, to one of the star pieces.

 

Sew all along all edges

 

Get your other star piece, right sides facing pin to the edge of the side piece. 
I found it best to pin the points of the star first, lining them up with the points on the other side, and then pinning the edges from there

 

 
Starting about one inch down from one of the five points, sew all the way around the star, leaving about a four to five inch gap open for stuffing 
      

 

Snip all five corners, up to, but not through, the stitching to release some of the fabric tension 
 
Trim all five points up to, but not through, the stitching, to make a cleaner point when turned 

Using open gap, turn to right sides.  Use a thin, blunt point to get the points properly turned, if necessary  

Begin stuffing. 
   
You want it to be stuffed pretty full, especially in the points.  To make it easier to sew in the buttons at the end, though, I found it helped to stuff less right in the middle of the star.

Using your needle and thread, hand sew the gap closed 
    

Using the cover button kit and your scraps, make two buttons, 1 1/8 inch

  
Time to sew the buttons on. 
I found it best for me to tie the end of the thread to one of the buttons. 
  

Sew the buttons into the center of the star, pulling REALLY REALLY tight and securing as you go.  This was the hardest part for me, but when you get it…

You’re done!