Make felt hearts
Felt hearts are not only fun to make, they have many, many uses! You can decorate the house with them, hide them in the fruit bowl for someone to find or send one in the post to someone special. Choose some weird and wacky ways to decorate them and make each one special. Here's how to make hanging hearts!
What you will need
- Paper
- Felt
- Sewing needle
- Sewing thread
- Pins
- Scissors
- Ribbon
- Stuffing (optional)
Tip: Re-use what you can to decorate your felt hearts. We like buttons, bells, beads, ribbons, lace – it’s amazing what you can find around the house…
Instructions
Before you start, make sure you’re familiar with stitching. We recommend a simple running stitch for beginners, but don’t let that hold you back: here are ten hand embroidery stitches, and how to master them.
Step 1 – draw and cut
Use the paper to draw a heart. Fold the paper in two and cut around the outline of the heart, which will give you two equal-sized paper hearts. You can use these as templates on the felt. Draw around them gently in pencil and cut out two pieces of heart-shaped felt.
Step 2 – time to decorate
Now that you’ve got the two sides of the heart cut out, you can choose how you want to decorate or sew patterns onto them. Remember, if you’re gluing bits on, make sure you allow time for the glue to dry before moving on to the next step.
Tip: Try cutting smaller hearts out of different colour felt pieces and sew them onto the main sides as decoration.
Step 3 – sew it up
Now your hearts are decorated, put them together with the decorated sides facing out. Select a piece of ribbon and fold it into a loop, tucking the ends between the two hearts (you can secure them loosely with a stitch or two). Then stitch the two hearts together, eventually securing the ribbon firmly within the stitches.
Tip: Leave a small opening in the top of the heart and plump up your heart with stuffing before stitching it all the way up.
