Thursday, November 25, 2010

coffee sack decorations

I've been playing around with burlap coffee bean sacks - making over sized decorations -
during which I even used a protractor for the first time since high school!

The ginormous five point star came to me in a flash of inspiration was made with a few tips from here. The rest of the process was guided by gut feeling and the added benefit of having no sprogs around offering to "help".
If you are keen to do something similar - it goes a little something like this...
80 cm radius (the average length I could get out of one side of each coffee sack) with 2 pencils and a piece of string and/or a measuring tape to form the circumference. A whopping 1.6 metre diameter...
Pattern folded in four to make a cross and center the protractor...
72 degrees x 5 star points...
Join points to get intersections, cut out petal shapes and use as pattern for burlap and canvas interfacing. Baste interfacing inside seam allowance before sewing up, leaving hole to stuff.
Skuzzy op shop pillow inners are practically free and make for perfect filling.

The star is a little too big to hang anywhere inside the house without it being a hazard. I thought about putting it outside, suspended under the pear tree - only it'll get rained on and rot. See those lovely angles... the wonderful symmetry and awesome accuracy...cabinetry and boat building just might follow.
The sprogs are requesting more of the stockings. I suspect that has less to do with craft and aesthetic appreciation than it has to do with their intended function and fill-ability a month from now. Ho Ho Ho kiddo.