Star Wand Tutorial

With Summer Solstice being tomorrow, I had originally wanted to make a couple sun wands for the kids. Austin, not surprisingly, wanted nothing to do with a wand - it's girly you know. And Hannah begged for a princess wand - so this is what we ended up with. To my delight, it is much loved, and was pretty easy to do.

If you want to make your own, follow the directions below.

What you need:
Felt - enough to make your desired shape twice (we used wool felt)
Cookie Cutter - for making the shape
Colored pencil
1 Small, thin dowel rod
Sharp Scissors
4 (or more) Strips of ribbon cut at desired length (I did 3/4 of the length of the dowel rod)
Embroidery thread in contrasting color
Hot Glue gun
Small rubber band


1) Trace your shape using the cookie cutter and colored pencil, on the felt two times

2) Cut out the shapes, and the ribbon strips.

3) Place your identical shape pieces on top of each other and sew a blanket stitch around almost the entire shape using embroidery thread. Make sure to leave an opening at the bottom so you can insert the dowel rod. Don't know how to do a blanket stitch? Here's a quick tutorial on that.
I didn't have enough of the yellow thread left, so I added the purple at the end to avoid having to start over - oops. Make sure you cut the thread a lot longer than you think you'll need just to avoid this.

4) Layer your ribbon strips on top of each other with top ends meeting, and sew a quick knot or two to secure them in place.

5) Attach the sewn ribbon end to the end of the dowel rod with a very tightly fitted rubber band. We used the tiny bands you find in the hair accessory section of the store, these are nice and small.

6) Add some hot glue around the end with the rubber band, and carefully insert the dowel rod far enough inside the shape so that you can no longer see the rubber band. Squeeze it quickly and hold it down to ensure the glue sticks to everything and won't come loose.

That's it! Now go enjoy your new magic wand!