Star Christmas Tree Topper

Our Christmas tree has been without a real tree topper for several years. We always say we will get one but somehow never have the time or just don't see anything that we like. This year I was determined to have something on the top of the tree.

I decided to go for a simple star since we had an old topper that could serve as the base. I had all these small pieces of gold from an old fabric sample folder. Some are metallic; some are not. They looked like a good possibility for a scrappy, strip pieced star.

Each sample was about 6 inches square. I cut them into 1 1/2 inch strips and made three strip sets, which were then sewn together so the fabrics lined up into one long strip. The paper template was to see if the strip set was wide enough.

Here is the star that determined the template. It is a tree topper itself and is made of a dark metal. Its holder is too short and wide to actually stay in place on the top of a tree and since the star is hollow, the whole thing gets lost. A piece of PVC pipe was hot glued to the base to make it more sturdy.

It sits on the top nice enough now. It just needs to be dressed up a bit.

There were several forms of fusible interfacing used in this project, mostly because they are all stored in the same bin together. As soon as I found one that I thought would work, I'd give it a try. I know there is Steam A Seam 2 and Decor Bond in this project. They make it so easy to finish a project fast. The only sewing is the strip set that forms the star. Here the star is traced and ready to cut.

Now things are looking better. Once the gold star was cut out it was a little bit too small and needed something to make it stand out. Placing it on a black background made it look a lot better. I even fused the fabric to the PVC pipe. That was some tricky pressing. See those white interfacing edges showing? A touch of black Sharpie around the edges took care of that. It sort of looks like a magic wand laying on the table.

Each star was hot glued to the original metal star. I can't say this will be a forever tree topper but it looks better than no tree topper at all.

While I was making the star, this tree topper appeared. It would have been fine with me if this one stayed, even though it might have startled me in the middle of the night.

Here it is when it first went on the tree. I decided the star was just a little far from the rest of the tree so we gave it a little trim.

I like this proportion much better. This year, our little tree has lights, ornaments, AND a star on top. I love sitting by the tree in the quiet of the morning. There are lots of stories in those ornaments.