Valentine's Heart Decoration

 

This is a bit of a cheaty post as I originally made this hanging heart decoration to give to my lovely friend Sally as a Secret Santa Christmas present back in December. However, this time of year sees the rekindling of all heart-shaped things in celebration of Valentine's Day.

Ahh lovely.

So, if you are in need of some inspiration for a simple and effective Valentine's gift that won't break the bank, or just fancy sewing a delightful little decoration regardless of the time of year, then follow the simple steps below!

1. Cut a heart shape out of old newspaper to the size you want. I wouldn't go much smaller than 10cm in height otherwise it might bet a bit fiddly sewing on the letters, but would be absolutely fine if you wanted to leave the hearts plain.

2. Use the heart template to cut out hearts (double the number of finished hearts that you so desire) from your chosen fabric and keep them together in pairs.

3. Using a contracting fabric, or many contrasting fabrics, cut out the letters of the word you want to spell out on your hearts. I used letters printed out from the computer so all my letters were the same font and size.

4. Using blanket stitch, I sewed each letter onto one fabric heart.

5. Now pin one lettered heart to one plain heart and use a basic running stitch to sew all the way around, about 1cm in from the edge. But don't sew right the way round to where you started - you need to leave a gap about 2 inches long to stick the stuffing into to make the hearts 3D. Once they are as fat as you like with stuffing finish off sewing round the heart.

6. Cut a length of ribbon about 15cm long for each heart. Fold the bits of ribbon in half and pin them to the top of the heart inside the two bits of fabric. Attach the pieces of ribbon with a single sturdy cross-stitch running through the ribbon and both bits of fabric.

7. Now thread a piece of string or more ribbon through the ribbon loops you have sewn onto the hearts and voila! A hanging heart decoration to add a bit of country loving to your home, or to give as a Valentine's Day present.

For the love of cards

It's been a while since I last posted on here, and although I would like to say that's because I have been up to lots of exciting things, more accurately, it's actually a few other people who have been up to several very exciting things all on the same day...

Saturday 20th October saw my Grandma turn 90.

 

Happy birthday Grandma!

After sending her an appliqued rabbit card earlier on in the year for Easter, I decided to recreate a similar card for her big birthday bash on Saturday.

Using a heart template pinned onto a piece of fabric I cut out the main shape.

Then I did the same with the numbers, and used blanket stitch to sew them onto the heart.

 

I then used a couple of pins to hold the heart in place on a piece of folded white card and used a basic running stitch to attach the heart so that it looked equally as neat on the inside of the card as on the front.

 

After my Grandma's party I returned home, and checking Facebook just before bed, discovered that not only had a couple of Jim's friends got engaged that day after an 8 year relationship, but so had one of my best friends and her boyfriend, after almost a similar length of time! Hooray!!

Time to get out the heart template again!

I had the idea to make the heart two different colours and then appliquing their forename initials, rather than numbers, to each side:

Ta da! Congratulations Stella and Alex and James and Emma!

 

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!