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You will need:
Cotton fabric (quilting or dressmaking cotton)
50cm of Lace or Ribbon
A button
Lavender, herbs or toy stuffing
Paper
Pencil
Scissors
Pins
Needle
Thread
Sewing Machine
Iron
Designing your Heart Template
Draw a heart shape onto paper or copy a heart outline from a book or google search.
To make it easy to sew, your heart shape needs to have a gently curving bottom tip rather than a pointed tip. It should also gently curve at the top.
The heart template I’ve used measures about 12.5cm or 5 inches from top to bottom and 12.5cm or 5 inches across the widest part.
I recommend that your heart shape is no smaller than mine, certainly not for your first attempt. When it comes to making items like this, it is worth starting off with a bigger shape so that you get your confidence before attempting a smaller size.
On one of the long sides of the heart make two marks about 3cm or 1.5 inches apart, to show where the opening will be.
Cut out your heart template.
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Transferring the design to fabric
Fold your fabric in half with the right sides facing each other and straight edges of the fabric lined up together.
Place the template onto your fabric so that it is parallel with a straight edge of the fabric.
Holding the template steady, draw around the heart template onto the fabric with a pencil. Do this slowly and steadily to make sure your template shape is transferred to fabric accurately.
Remember to copy the markings onto the fabric to show where the side opening will be.
Pin through both layers of fabric, inside the heart shape to hold them together.
At this stage you can remove some of the excess fabric outside of the heart shape, but don’t cut any closer to the heart than about half an inch or 1.5cm or half an inch.
Sewing the heart shape
Set your sewing machine needle to its central setting.
You will be sewing directly onto the pencil outline of the heart shape.
Position your fabric so that you can start sewing at the bottom edge of the opening – see photo.
Remember to sew a couple of stitches at the start, then reverse for a couple of stitches, so that you don’t have to tie a knot in your thread ends when finished.
Now, sew slowly and carefully along the pencil line.
When you come to a curve sew extra carefully!
To do this, sew a couple of stitches, leave the needle down through the fabric, lift the machine foot, position your fabric by pivoting it around the needle, lower the machine foot and then sew a couple more stitches. Keep going around the curve, leaving the needle in the fabric, lifting the foot, turning fabric into position, lowering foot and stitching as you go.
It is well worth sewing the curve at the bottom point of the heart and the two curves at the top very slowly and steadily – the more careful your stitching the better your finished shape will be.
Always remember to keep the needle in a down position, through the fabric, each time you want to lift the foot and rotate the fabric.
Keep your eye on the pencil line and reposition the fabric as necessary to keep sewing along that line.
When you get to the first of the top curves of the heart, sew it carefully.
Then be sure to sew steadily along the pencil line to the tip of the “V” section, and with your needle down to anchor the fabric, pivot your fabric so that you can sew up to the second curve away.
Keep sewing slowly around the curve, pivoting the fabric and down the long side of the heart.
When you finally sew back along the long side and reach the top of the side opening, remember to do a couple of reverse stitches to finish off your sewing.
Remove your sewing from the machine and cut the thread ends.
Remove the pins.
Trimming, Turning and Pressing
Okay, so now you will need to use your fabric scissors to trim away the excess fabric around the heart shape. Trim to about 5mm from your sewing.
Leave a wider edge of fabric where the side opening is and slightly beyond the opening. This will give you plenty of fabric for turning after you’ve stuffed the heart.
After trimming away the excess fabric, you need to clip into the curves.
Clipping ensures that the fabric turns and shapes itself to the sewing line and therefore gives your heart a neat outline.
To clip into the curves, take your scissors and clip with the tip of your scissors towards the sewing line, but no closer to the sewing than 1mm. Be careful not to clip through your sewing!
You’ll need to clip about every 5mm, but only on the curves not on the straight sides of the heart.
Clip the point of the “V” at the top of the heart to within 5 mm of the stitching, as before. It’s essential to have a clip at the point of the “V” as this ensures your heart shape will form accurately without any fabric puckering when you turn it right side out.
Turn the heart right side out through the opening.
Using a point turner or a blunt pencil crayon, gently push into the curves of the heart to shape them.
With your fingers manipulate, twist and turn the fabric to form the curves at the top and bottom of the heart.
Now take your heart to the iron and gently iron the edges with the tip of an iron. Then carefully press all over the heart.
Can’t be bothered to get the ironing board out for such a small project? Then just fold a couple of towels on a counter top and iron onto these – making sure you have at least 4 layers of towel to iron onto so that you don’t damage your counter top!
Adding the ribbon bow and button
Great, you’re nearly there! Now comes the decorative bit!
Take a piece of ribbon measuring about 50cm and fold it in half.
On the front side of the heart position the ribbon just below the point of the “V”. You will need to allow about 10cm of ribbon above this point for the hanging loop. See Photo.
Using a needle and thread, sew through the ribbon, just below the “V”, and through to the reverse side of the heart – just a couple of stitches to hold the ribbon in place.
Now fold the two ends of the ribbon to make a bow shape. You don’t need to tie an actual bow.
Instead, shape one of the ribbon ends to make one half of a bow, sew it in place with a couple of stitches and then shape the other ribbon end to make the other half of the bow and sew this in place with a couple of stitches.
You may want to practice this a couple of times until you are happy with the size of the bow, before going onto the next step.
Keeping your thread in place, now position a button on the centre of the bow. Sew a few stitches all the way through to the reverse of the heart to keep the button securely in place.
To finish, bring your needle through to the reverse of the heart. Twist your thread around the need a couple of times and then push the needle into the fabric and out again to make a knot.
Finish the thread neatly by pushing the needle through the reverse layer of fabric and out again a little way off, then cut the thread. This makes the end of your thread disappear inside the heart for a neat finish.
Now let’s get stuffing!
Stuffing and Finishing
Stuff your fabric heart with lavender or toy stuffing or herbs – or whatever takes your fancy!
It’s good to fill the heart until it is quite sturdy and nicely plump – there’s nothing worse than a saggy heart, is there?
Once you’ve filled the heart you need to hand sew the opening to close it up.
Using your needle and thread sew with small stitches along the opening by overcasting – see the photo.
Remember to use a sewing thread which blends into the fabric – you don’t want your hand sewing to be very visible.
You’ve finished – Well Done !!
Now hang your heart some place where you can admire your hardwork :-)
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