Last year, lots of people seemed to enjoy my Felt Gingerbread Man tutorial. So this year, I thought I’d come up with a few more festive how-to-guides for you to try. Every day this week I’ll be publishing a brand new step by step tutorial to make a collection of cute little felt decorations. Today, learn to make you own beautiful felt star. If you love beads and all things sparkly, this one is for you.

But before we begin! If you love to sew, why not sign up for my Creative Sewing Challenge? I created it to help me keep my beloved hobby on the agenda when life gets busy, and since launching, hundreds of lovely sewers throughout the world have joined me. You get a fabulous prompt sent to your inbox at the start of the month, and a collection of ideas linked to the theme. The idea is to sew something – anything – in response. Its free, fun and open to anyone. Sign up below or find out more here.

You will need:

• Felt
• Stitch’n’tear (or similar stabilizer)
• Embroidery floss in a matching colour*
• Embroidery floss in a contrasting colour*
• Beads
• Embroidery needle (the eye needs to be big enough for your chosen thread but small enough for your chosen beads)
• Thin ribbon (approximately 12cm per star)
• Tapestry needle (the eye needs to be big enough for your chosen ribbon)
• Scissors and pins

*use two strands of embroidery floss throughout (or try Perle embroidery thread).

1. Cut out your pieces following instructions on the pattern. You’ll need two star shapes cut from the felt, and also the star template.

2. Trace your template onto the stitch’n’tear, and pin to one of your felt pieces.

3. Sew along each of the lines using split stitch. Begin by making a small running stitch.

4. Then bring your needle back through the stitch you just made, about 1 third from the end.

5. Thread a bead.

6. Then made another stitch.

7. Repeat steps 3-6, threading beads as you go.

8. Continue until you have a complete line of beaded stitches, leaving the very last stitch as a plain split stitch without the bead.

9. Repeat these steps for each of the lines. As you add more beads, it will become necessary to just pass your needle under the middle section of the star where all the lines intersect (otherwise you’ll have one big mound of beads in the middle).

10. Once all the lines have been sewn, carefully remove your stitch’n’tear. It should come away fairly easily (that’s what its been designed for!) But you may need to use tweezers around the middle of the star to get the really small pieces out from under the beads. Take your time so you don’t pull any stitches, it will come away eventually.

11. Pin your two star shapes, wrong sides together, and use a small running stitch in matching thread to sew the front to the back.

12. Finally, use a tapestry needle to thread your ribbon through the stitches at a star point. Tie the ends together to make a loop for hanging your beautiful decoration.

And there you have it, a sparkly festive star to hang on your tree, create a garland or make as a gift. Have fun with choosing whatever colour-scheme works for you; you can switch up the beads and background so they alternate (so in this example, blue beads on a golden background), or go crazy and cover all the colours of the rainbow. Whatever takes your fancy!

Remember, it would be great to welcome you to the Creative Sewing Challenge…

…and here’s a handy pin to save for later! Join me tomorrow for my next tutorial; a cute little elf stocking!