Handmade With Love - Day 6 - Felt Love

Today's project is going to be done in two parts, part one involves making little hearts out of felt! Now, I'm not the best sewer but I do have some tips that will hopefully help :) Tomorrow we will show you how to display your little hearts in a super fun and cute way!

Supplies:
Felt
Floss or string for sewing
Needle
Disappearing Ink Marker
Our free pattern download
Stuffing
Ribbon for loops for hanging...

You'll want to start by printing your patterns on cardstock and cutting them out of the cardstock to make stencils. This will allow you to trace them easily on to the felt! We used a "Simplicity" disappearing marker and it worked great, plus it was only 2.99 at the fabric store! That purple ink will be completely gone in 24 hours! You could use a regular marker, but then you'll have to be sure you cut all the marked parts off or use the back sides.

Another thing to think about - if you plan on stuffing your hearts, you'll need to cut two of the same heart to stitch together!

Once you have your patterns traced you can either cut the pattern out and then sew or sew around the marked line and then cut (if you do it the second way you'll have to use a disappearing ink marker - otherwise the line will show!!). Just make sure if you have a two piece pattern that you do it the same way for both pieces!

{Photo above: stitching first, Photo below: cut second}

A couple tips on sewing - Simple stitches look great! Use two needles, one to sew and one to help secure the felt so it doesn't slide around while stitching!

Stitch the ribbon loop between the felt pieces as your going along

Just as your about to finish up your stitching you can stop and add a little stuffing! This will give it an little extra poof.

For the heart and arrow pattern, first stitch the arrow, then sew the arrow in between the two heart pieces!

Create a two layer heart...

Or just leave the second layer off!

Add buttons and tulle for extra fun!

Make your heart fly by adding wings!

Or, add a banner! You could also make this banner say things like: love you, honey, mom, dad, my love, etc. Use your disappearing ink pen to write the letters and then stitch!

Add some cute scallops!

All of the hearts shown below are included in our FREE pattern download today! They are color coded so you'll know what pieces go together. If you want to share your creations with us feel free to upload them to our flickr gallery!

{the free download is a pdf file that requires Adobe Acrobat to open. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader you can download it here for free}

I hope you all enjoy the patterns! If you have any questions please post them here and I'll answer them on Saturday :) And, make sure you check back tomorrow to see part two, how to display the hearts! And, we'll also be doing our biggest giveaway ever!!

Happy Creating everyone!
XO, Elle