I've been wanting to do a mini sewing project for a while, and since it's Valentine's Day, there's no time like the present. I had a bunch of felt I'd ordered from Amazon a few years ago and thought it was the perfect time to make some little heart shaped pillow accessories.
I'm not really sure what you'd even call these things, but they could be used in a bunch of different ways. I made a bunch of them and strung them up in the window as a kind of garland. They'd also make cute little zipper pulls on a backpack, keychains, handbag accessories, and more!
To make these, you will need:
felt in several colors
thread or embroidery floss
needle
polyester stuffing
ribbon
scissors
soft pencil (or something you can use to trace on felt)
To start, I made two heart shaped stencils (a larger one and a smaller one) out of cardstock by folding a square in half and cutting out half a heart shape. This is an easy way to make sure the heart is even on both sides.
I traced the heart stencils on to several sheets of felt in different colors using a soft drawing pencil. You will need two larger hearts and one smaller one for each pillow.
In my case, I chose to use six different colors of felt. One smaller heart is attached to each pillow, so I made sure to match a small heart to each set of the larger ones in advance so each pillow would have two different colors of felt. Be mindful that there will be lines on one side of each felt piece from where you traced it. Make sure you put the side with the markings on the inside of the project so they won't show.
I used white embroidery floss to sew the smaller heart on to one of the larger ones using a straight stitch. This added a little extra detail to each pillow. It's ok if your sewing isn't exactly even or straight. That just adds to the charm!
Next, I began sewing the matching hearts together using a whip stitch. The felt set I ordered from Amazon came with thread that closely matched the felt colors, but you could easily use threads from separated embroidery floss. I started sewing at the bottom of the heart and went about halfway around.
Using a straight stitch, I attached a short length of folded ribbon to make a loop. I used about 3 inches for each pillow, but you could use more or less depending on how you want to use them. Make sure the ends of the ribbon are between the two hearts so they don't show.
Once the ribbon was attached, I continued sewing with a whip stitch until I was about an inch away from the bottom. I used polyester stuffing (the stuff inside of pillows) to fill each pillow and make them puffy.
Then, I continued sewing until the hole was closed. To finish the string where it wouldn't show, I pulled the end of the string inside the pillow using my needle.
These little pillows were so fun to make and super easy! Felt is also pretty inexpensive, so I'd estimate each heart cost about 20 cents to make. They make cute decorations and could even be given away as a gift. Like I said, I made a bunch to string up across my windows, but I'll probably make more next year for other things. Let me know if you try it out!
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