Simply Sewing Magazine

It’s official – we are feeling full of holiday cheer here at Simply Sewing magazine. Our team trimmings up, our Secret Santa plans are afoot, and now we’re in the mood for a spot of seasonal sewing. Oh, and we’re officially inviting you to join us! Today we’re launching our Ho Ho Sewalong: a four-part blog series of free Christmas sewing patterns for us all to sew and show off our seasonal makes. Read on to find out how to join in, and you could win a beautiful bundle of 8 fat quarters of Dashwood Studio fabric!

How it works

Joining in with the sew along is easy. We’ll be posting up a new festive project here on the blog for the next four days. You can either use our free tutorials, or sew another festive project of your choice, then simply share your makes online on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #hohosewalong.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll round up our favourite sewalong photos and pick one at random to win a bundle of fabric.

Let’s go!

For our first post, we’re making these pretty star cushions. We’re lucky enough to have the ever-so-clever Rebecca Reid on the Simply Sewing team, and she designed these as part of her eye-catching DIY Christmas decorations for issue 10. Read on to find out how to make them (and remember, if you’re making your own, post a pic and tag it #hohosewalong).

Sewalong part 1: DIY star cushions

You will need

• Main fabric: small star 40x80cm (16x32in), large star 60x120cm (24x48in)
• Polyester fibrefill
• Matching sewing thread
• Download our DIY Star cushion Christmas sewing pattern (PDF)

We’ve used

• Main fabric: Festive by Jo Clark for Cloud9. Festive Snowflakes (ref: C9FES140702) and Festive Peppermint Twist (ref: C9FES140506). See Hantex for stockists.
• Polyester fibrefill: Carded polyester fibrefill from www.worldofwool.co.uk
• Download our star sewing patterns here.

Notes

• Once finished, the large star measures 50x50cm (20x20in) and the small star measures 30x30cm (12x12in).
• Use a 1.5cm (5/8in) seam allowance, unless otherwise stated and press all seams open as you go.

Cutting out the fabric

Step one Decide which size star cushion you want to make first then trace round the corresponding star template from our free sewing pattern and cut it out.

Step two Cut the main fabric in half to make two squares, one for the front and one for the back of the cushion.

Making the star

Step three Place your template centrally on the wrong side (WS) of one piece of fabric and draw round it.

Step four Place this piece of fabric right sides (RS) together with the other piece of fabric and pin together.

Step five Stitch carefully along the drawn lines, starting and stopping along a straight edge so that you can leave a small turning gap. When you reach points or tight curves, leave your needle in the fabric, pivot the fabric and stitch carefully round.

Step six Trim all round the edges using pinking shears. At the star point, trim the fabric closer to the stitching to reduce bulk.

Filling the star

Step one Turn your star RS out and turn the gap edges under and press.

Step two Stuff the star firmly using just small pieces of stuffing at the points to make sure they are filled right up to the ends.

Step three Slip stitch the gap closed to finish.

Finished your star cushions? Now share a photo!

Remember to share your makes online on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #hohosewalong to be in with a chance of winning this beautiful bundle of Dashwood Studio fabric! Now let’s get sewing! Come back and visit us tmrw for part two of our Ho Ho Sewalong of Christmas sewing patterns to make and share.