Homely heart garland

 

This is a perfect way to use up offcuts and scraps of fabric to make a simple yet effective decoration that can be used to brighten up a corner of a room or hang across the top of a cupboard or window.

You can use any fabric and a template for any shape to make a seasonal decoration, such as Christmas trees, flowers, stars etc etc. I love hearts as they fit in the whole year round!

To make a heart garland

You will need:

• fabric
• heart template (easy to find online, or use a heart-shaped biscuit cutter)
• pinking scissors (ordinary scissors are fine, but the pinking scissors gives the hearts a good zigzag look)
• wadding (easily and cheaply picked up from a haberdashery/fabric shop, or you could use the stuffing from a cheap cushion)
• thread
• needle
• ribbon

1. Begin by cutting out two heart shapes out of each piece of fabric to make one heart - cut about 1cm around the template to allow for the stuffing that reduces the size. Pin the heart shapes inside to inside to keep them together.
2. Sew each pair of heart shapes together by machine or hand about 3/4 of the way round, making sure to leave a 1cm border round the outside. Fill them with wadding to the size you like the look of, then finish off sewing up each heart.
3. When you have about 8-10 filled hearts (or as many as you like depending on how long you want the garland!) lay them out in the order you want them to hang. Cut up pieces of ribbon about 8-10cm long and sew them between each heart attaching it to the top/bottom or each side to hang them in order.

4. Finish off by attaching a loop of ribbon to the top of the first heart (or each side of the outer hearts depending on which way you want the garland to hang) so it's easy to hang up. 

 Hang your hearts lengthways to brighten up the top of a cupboard or doorway...

 ...or downwards to add some colour to a plain corner!