Whether on a side table, the dining room table or on a coffee table, bowl fillers have become a warm and welcoming holiday decorating tradition.
If you haven't used bowl fillers before they are simply that: bowl fillers. You take a festive colorful bowl and fill it with greenery or potpourri for the season. On top you add the bowl fillers. They can take any shape for the holiday. Some are fabric candy canes or snowmen, some are miniature stuffed Santa hats or snowballs. The ones we are making today are stars. Once you try these make more with your own design.
Materials Needed:
- Sewing machine
- Polyfill
- A quarter yard of cotton muslin
- Scraps of cotton prints
- Buttons
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Paper
- Needle
- Thread
- Optional -Tea or coffee for dying
Preparation
- On your piece of paper draw a star about eight inches across. Cut it out with the scissors. This is your pattern to use on the fabric.
- If you are going to tea dye your fabric, do it before going any farther. If you are not dying your fabric skip directly to step #6
- Fill your sink or a tub half way full with very hot water. Generously pour tea or coffee into the water and stir to dissolve.
- Immerse your fabric into the tea bath and soak.
- You can hang the fabric to dry or lay it on a cookie sheet and bake at 275 for 30 minutes. You may need to flip the material and bake a second time. (It is not recommended to put it in your clothes dryer because the tea or coffee can remain and stain wet clothes that go in the dryer afterwards.)
- Lay your fabric out flat and fold in half.
- Trace your star onto the fabric until you have three to six stars.
- As you cut out your stars, you will be cutting out two of each with the fabric doubled. You will need two stars for every one completed.
- On one piece of the cut stars baste on a small irregular shaped piece of cotton print.
- On top of each cotton print sew a button. Do not make it all centered. You want some interest for the eye by setting the rectangle and button off center.
Assembly
- Lay a star on top of the piece with the button. The top piece should have nothing sewn to it. On the sewing machine sew the two stars together making sure to leave an opening for turning the piece inside right.
- Turn the fabric right side out and stuff with the polyfill.
- Baste the star closed.
- Lay three to six of these in a bowl on top of your greenery. The number added to the bowl really depends on the size of the bowl you are using and your own personal style.
The copyright of the article How to Make Decorative Star-Shaped Bowl Fillers in Crafts is owned by Mary Welling-Bonney. Permission to republish How to Make Decorative Star-Shaped Bowl Fillers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
