Be the Star!

My daughter wanted to be the star in the Christmas pageant this year, so I whipped this up the night before. It's a pretty basic costume that can versatile in the future. It could be combined with a fancy green dress to be a Christmas tree, it could stand alongside friends dressed as planets to be part of the solar system, or we could hang ribbons from it and call it a shooting star. Here's how you can be the star of the show too...

Cut a Star Shape Out of Foam

First, I took some foam left over from my daughter's My Little Pony Costume and my son's Gameboy costume and cut out a hexagon shape and 5 triangles. I cut an oval in the hexagon and made sure my daughter's face would fit in it, then I hot glued each triangle to each side of the hexagon except for the bottom side.

Iron on Fusible Web

To make it sturdy, I ironed on some thick fusible web material to one side of the foam star. I suggest doing this to both sides (I simply didn't have enough material).

Cut Out Your Fabric.

Using the foam star as a pattern, I cut out 2 pieces of fabric about 1 inch larger all the way around. Starting at the bottom, I sewed a straight stitch all the way around the star and left an opening about 6 inches wide at the bottom.

I used some fancy gold leather on one side and white fleece on the other. I recommend doing both sides in fleece or cotton fabric as it is easier to hand sew in the next step.

Insert Your Foam Structure Into Your Fabric.

Turn your machine-stitched star right side out and carefully insert your foam star through the opening at the bottom. Fold the triangles inward and ease them into their proper slots. Once your foam is in place, cut out the face-hole so your fabric is about a half an inch beyond the foam. Since I used leather on one side, I had to cut slits in the leather and fold and glue it inward.

Hand-stitch the Facehole and Bottom Edge.

Hand-stitch the face-hole and bottom edge closed using a ladder stitch. (Hand-stitching through leather is HARD, which is why I recommend fleece or cotton.)

Make an Adjustable Headpiece.

I had lots of complex ideas about how to attach a headpiece but I had to keep reminding myself to KEEP IT SIMPLE.

I originally envisioned a fleece cowl neck scarf, but that would have been too hot. A simple elastic band, however, would slip around and be uncomfortable.

Finally, I took a 12 inch strip of 6 inch wide lace, hemmed it on both sides, sewed a channel on one edge with thin elastic inside, stitched the elastic in place down the middle (so the elastic won't pull out), pinned it around the top edge of the face hole, and hand stitched it in place.

When the elastic is gathered in the back, the result is a fancy, comfortable headpiece that can adjust to fit a child or adult-shaped head.

You're a Star!

Ta-da! A star is born!