Sew Sweet Hearts

Valentine’s Day is not that far away, if you can believe it! Twenty-eight days is all we’ve got. I love days about love, don’t get me wrong, but I admit to having a little parental frustration around the celebration of Valentine’s Day in school – namely, what to do with the years and years of Disney Princess/Shrek/Cars/Batman/Hello Kitty/etc/etc/etc folded cards collected and triumphantly brought home. And then never ever looked at again. Although perish the thought of chucking those dears in the garbage or the recycling. The mere mention of not keeping them for all eternity is frightful. I have no idea what to do with them all and even though you can buy a box fairly inexpensively if you’re so inclined, I also really have a problem doing that, for multiple reasons. So, for the past few years my daughter has dutifully delivered homemade/handmade valentines to all her BFFs, and the other kids too. I am on the hunt for my favourite idea for this year’s edition, but thought it was a really great time to share what we made last year, with a little how-to too.

Last Valentine’s Day we made our own tiny Valentine heart pins out of felt, hand-stitched together with a little bit of stuffing inside. Each had a tiny brass safety pin attached to the back to make the pin. I helped my daughter make the twenty or so needed for her class, but in the process she did learn how to sew a blanket stitch and accomplished finishing several of the hearts on her own. I really love that these real-life occasions give us opportunity to learn a new craft or technique, work together, and yield a tangible result she can take pride in.

We used the tutorial from one of my favourite sources for beautiful craft projects, The Purl Bee, which is the blog/newsletter from the store Purl Soho. You can see their instructions on how to make the heart pins here.

To make our felt heart pins, we hand cut hearts out of red craft felt. We also made a few in white felt and some in pink, of course. Then we paired them up and began sewing them together with embroidery floss. You could use a simple straight stitch, but we decided to use a blanket stitch. If hand sewing or the blanket stitch is new to you, don’t despair. It’s quite easy, and once you get the first stitch or two right you’ll be just fine. Here are the steps:

Start stitching around the edge of your heart. If the corners are giving you trouble, I found this tutorial really helpful:

Stop stitching before you reach the place where you started, and stuff a tiny bit of stuffing into the heart (we used the regular, widely available polyfill stuffing that comes in a bulk bag). Use a pencil or another handy thin, pointy tool to get the stuffing into position, then finish stitching the heart closed. Knot it up! Because they’re handmade, kid-made and sweet, they do not have to be perfect. A little wobble gives the heart personality.

Stitch a pin on the back with your embroidery floss. I am pretty sure we found our little brass pins at the dollar store, which is where we got our felt for this project too.

This craft is something that older kids can learn and master with just a little nudging in the right directions. If we were to make these again, I would not set my four-year old up with needle and thread, but might substitute  handmade sewing cards for her. We could paint/decoupage/collage some cardboard hearts, punch holes around the perimeter  and get her started with a plastic needle and yarn.

If a class set of those isn’t enough crafting for you, then I suggest cutting a square of cardstock paper and pinning the heart to that, with a To: and From: handwritten or typed on the cardstock.

Sew much sweeter!