EPP Xmas Star Decorations
Using Aurifil 80wt thread
Are you new to English Paper Piecing (EPP)? Well me too… until I made there Xmas EPP Stars and now I am completely hooked! They may look tricky - but they are so straight forward to make and the best thing about them is they involve hand-stitching, so it makes me slow down and relax and enjoy the process!
Make a batch of stars and decorate the tree, or use them as fancy present decoration - the possibilities of these stars are endless and also timeless and could be brought out each year as a family heirloom!
Let me walk you through how I made them…
What you will need
Fabric - Use scraps or this project is perfect for Charm Packs like the Ruby Star Society Jolly Darlings Charm Pack I used for this tutorial!
Aurifil 80wt thread - believe me when I say ‘you will never use anything else’ when you use Aurifil thread and their 80wt is like silk when using it for EPP.
Tulip Needles - my favourite brand of needles for hand sewing.
** You do not need to buy templates or even paper pieces for this small EPP project. Below is a printable download. There are 2 different size diamonds. The larger one to use as a guide to cut your fabric and the smaller diamond as the paper piece for the centre of the EPP (read through the tutorial to see what I mean!).
How to make EPP stars
Start with choosing 2 fabrics for your stars.
Place the diamond template on the fabric where you want to cut it - this is ‘fussy cutting’.
Cut out using a rotary cutter.
Using your glue pen, place a dot on the back of (1) paper piece.
Place the paper diamond in the centre of the fabric diamond.
Glue (1) edge of the paper piece.
Fold over the fabric on top of the glue and secure.
Moving left around the diamond, repeat these steps until all edges are folded over and glued down.
Repeat this process until you have made 6 fabric diamond EPP pieces.
Aurifil 80wt Thread
Yes you can of course use another type of thread, but if you want the best finish I recommend trying Aurifil 80wt thread. It is 100% cotton, 2pl 80wt thread so incredibly fine, which makes your stitches hard to see when using it for EPP.
And not only that, they come on the most beautiful cherry wood spools - they make the perfect addition to any sewing space.
Check out the Aurifil Shop for more details and thread kits here!
Aurifil 80wt Thread on cherry wood spools.
Lay out your 6 EPP diamonds as shown, alternating the 2 different fabrics.
Take 2 pieces and place them right sides together.
Sew them together using your Aurifil 80wt thread along one of the sides.
Repeat these steps until all 6 pieces are joined and form a star.
How to make double-sided EPP star
Make two EPP stars using the method above. You can remove the EPP paper diamonds is you prefer. I found that keeping the paper pieces in place made my stars more rigid and I preferred the look for a decoration.
Take two EPP stars and a 4” loop (so you can hang the star - I used a faux leather string).
Place the stars wrong-sides together and line up the points.
Use quilting clips or pins to keep in place and insert the raw edges of the loop inside the middle of the two stars as shown.
Using your Aurifil 80wt thread, sew around the edge of the star.
How to make one-sided EPP star
If you plan to make a bunch of EPP Stars for gifts and decorations this Christmas, then this method will save you a lot of time but won’t lose any of the ‘wow’ factor!
I used a medium weight fusible interfacing and top-stitched the star directly onto it. With this technique you can remove the paper pieces to be bale to use them again if you wish.
Remove the paper pieces from the EPP star.
Iron the EPP Star directly onto the fusible interfacing.
Make sure to insert the raw edges of the loop between the star and the interfacing.
Place the Aurifil 80wt as your top-thread on your sewing machine.
Place 40wt thread in your bobbin (there is no need to use 80wt in the bobbin - 40wt works just fine!)
Use a short running stitch to top-stitch along the edge of the star.
Carefully trim around the edge of the star.
Add wooden beads to the bottom of the loop for extra decoration!