Pieced Star Pillow

This is my favorite of the four star styles I did.  I love that you can use scraps and contrasting materials.  It just has so many fun fabric combination possibilities.

Materials needed:

1/4 yard material, either all the same or various
Batting/stuffing
Small scrap of contrasting material (or small scrap of the main material)
Two 1 1/8 inch cover buttons (found in the notion section)
Long needle
Thread
Star pattern foundation piece

Begin by tracing and cutting out ten of the star foundation piece from the pattern here

**note:  I used stripes, and if I had been smarter, I would have lined up all the stripes so that it would make a fun little pentagon in the center of my finished pillow.**

Separate the diamonds into two stacks of five each.
Take two of the diamonds, stack, wrong sides together.  Note that there is a longer side and a shorter side.  We’ll be sewing the diamonds together at the shorter sides.
 
Sew one short side from middle point to short end point.
Layer another diamond on one of the sewn diamonds.  Sew along the short side again
 
Continue to do this for all five pieces of one stack of diamonds: sewing ONLY along the short sides

Finish by matching up the last two unsewn short sides, folding right sides together, and sewing
 

Repeat for with the other five diamonds.  You should now have two stars

 
Right sides together, layer on top of each other, matching points and corners

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

 

Tri 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!