Shooting Star Handmade Christmas Toy Easy DIY Gift

Today I am sharing with you an easy shooting star handmade Christmas toy DIY that your littles can make for a Christmas present. I share with you the PDF pattern, and a DIY using a very simple hand sewing stitch that works great for kids age 5 and older!

Why Bother Making Handmade Christmas Gifts?

We need to be creative. It’s fun, it satisfies, it rewards us. We struggle, we over come, we are so proud of ourselves when we create! And as far as Christmas gifts goes, well it just doesn’t get any better than than watching someone you love, find happiness over something you worked hard to give them!

It is one of my favorite memories as a child! One year, I took a small Christmas tree, made ornaments out of clay, fabric, and I finger knitted a Christmas garland that was the perfect finishing touch for each tree. I also crocheted a quick and easy tree skirt for each one. When I was finished I felt so accomplished and I loved watching the reactions of those I gave it too. One of my sisters says she still has it over twenty years later!

It is such a gift to give our children, the joys of handmaking a gift. But it needs to not be more complicated than they can handle which makes todays shooting star the prefect place for kids to start making handmade Christmas gifts!

It’s cheap, simple, and doesn’t take much time. It can be an ornament or a soft ball that can be thrown around so that it won’t break any glass ornaments. Well at least in theory! 😉

This shooting star ornament or toy ball would make a great stocking stuffer as well.

I normally help Charlotte Mason homeschoolers add handicrafts to their homeschool, but whether you homeschool or not, it is so much fun for our kids to do a little Christmas magic craft making!

Now let’s move on to the supplies you need, and the shooting star DIY.

Shopping List

• Fabric and paper scissors.
• A circle pattern. You can use mine that also has Christmas felt ornament patterns too but you can just trace the top of a cup or some other circle object in your home.
• Felt, yellow, white, gold, or whatever color you already have.
• Embroidery floss in white, gold, silver, or yellow.
• Needles, one per sewer.
• Pins.
• Stuffing or left over felt/fabric for stuffing.
• Two or 3 kinds of ribbon.
• Glue, I prefer glue guns but be careful they hurt!

Shooting Star Handmade Christmas Toy Easy DIY Gift

We are sewing the two felt pieces together using the up and down stitch, the most basic of all the hand sewing stitches. I find that my 5 year old can handle this stitch well. Draw a pencil line in a circle close to the edge to help your kids even more.

If your kids would like a little more of a challenge than I have tutorials for the whip stitch, and the blanket stitch.

Step 1

If you grabbed my free Christmas pattern then print and cut out the paper pattern, pin to the felt and cut that out. Cut two pieces.

Step 2

Thread and knot your needle. Start by hiding your knot in between the felt pieces as pictured.

Move to your left a bit, poke your needle through the two pieces of felt, pull the needle all the way through. You just completed your first stitch!

Your needle is now in the back, poke your needle from the back to the front, pull the needle all the way through. Now stick the needle back through, and then pull all the way through.

Up and down, up and down. That’s all there is to it!

Step 3

Before your reach the end of the circle, stop, and stuff your shooting star as fat as you want it.

Step 4

Glue on the 3 pieces of ribbon to desired length, the middle being shorter than the other two. Keep the glue to the tip of the felt as best you can. This makes finishing the sewing easy.

Continue sewing, if the glue is to far down, just sew on the side that doesn’t have the ribbon on it, and glue the 2 felt pieces together.

Glue on a loop if this shooting star’s destiny is to hang on the Christmas tree. If it is to be thrown about then leave as is.

All done!

Tips For Sewing With Kids

Don’t make the floss length longer than the distance from your kids nose to the tip of their finger, double this, and fold in half so it ends up the length for between the finger tips and the nose. This lessons the need to rethread.

Thread and knot the needle for them. Or an older sibling can help as well.

Shooting Star Handmade Christmas Toy

Easy DIY Gift

If you would like to have the whole family have a craft night then you can use my free Christmas printable pattern and make Christmas tree ornaments. The circle for the shooting star is apart of the patterns, so if you already downloaded it for the shooting star DIY, then you are good to go!

The free pattern include:

Angel

Gingerbread man

Christmas tree

Stocking

Christmas sweater

Shooting star from today’s DIY.

Click here for the free pattern.

To learn two other beginning stitches then:

Click for the whip stitch, which is the next level up from today’s up and down stitch.

Or click here for the blanket stitch which is a little more tricky than the whip stitch.

You May Also Like:

• Nutcracker doll patterns that are bendable found at my Etsy shop.
• Another handmade Christmas gift idea plus DIY for your kids to make, a simple felt doll.