felt hearts

I made these hearts a while ago for an awesome Christmas market in Cape Town called "Kamersvol Geskenke" (translated in english... "Rooms filled with gifts")

They are lovely as decorations on your  Christmas tree, to put around the back of a chair, around a door knob, or just anywhere that you want to hang them!


What you need:
Felt square (you can buy all colors of the rainbow at you local fabric or craft shop)
Embroidery floss
Embroidery needle
Quilt stuffing
Buttons (optional)


I think the most difficult part of making these are cutting the felt neatly.  It is important that the two "cheeks" of the heart is the same. To get this even I fold the felt in two and cut the heart with the fold of the material in the middle. You can use a half heart template to make sure of you heart form.

You need to cut 2 hearts. 

When you open it up it's a lovely symmetrical heart.

Now decide what design you want on your heart.  The design is on the front heart and done before the two hearts are put together.  Here's a few example of what you can do:

Now the next challenging part is the blanket stitch, it's easy once you get it so I'll try my best to explain.


You'll use the blanket stitch to put the two felt hearts together.  To start off, you thread the floss (with a knot at the end) through the top felt heart only, threading towards you. When putting the two hearts together, the knot is hidden away in between the two. (Here I used two different colours, for you to see the difference between the front and back, red front and green back)

Now do that again threading from back to front, but through both felt hearts. Before you tighten the floss, push the needle through the loop that has formed.  Then pull it through from bottom to top, and pull tight. You'll see the first stitch looks odd, but not to worry you'll fix it later. :-)

Now carry on putting the needle through both hearts from the back to the front, then pulling it through the loop before you pull tight.  Make sure that all your stitches is same depth and width, otherwise it looks untidy.


Continue till you have only about two centimeters to go.  Using the quilt stuffing, stuff the heart as fat as you wish it to be.  Then continue the blanket stitch to close it up.  The last stitch you must try and stitch it in as close to the first one as possible.  With the needle coming out the front, loop it through the first stitch from right to left (if right handed and you are working from right to left), then pull it through the loop as before.  This will pull that first stitch so that it is straight. 

To end off push the floss in between the front and back parts where you did the last stitch and pull it through to the other side of the heart, cutting off the floss level with the hearts edge so that it can't be seen.


To finish off use a thin ribbon and thread it through your needle.  Pulling it through the top of the heart, then just tie the ribbon at the top, ready to hang up!


If you are planning on making them to hang on your Christmas tree, I would suggest that you choose a colour scheme and make them different using the same colours.  


Have loads of fun!