Follow your wishing heart
If you ever want to alienate a teenager, get rid of your television.
The kids are continually amazed that I can exist without a TV (so are the folks at TV licensing, but that’s a different matter) and about once a week, a student will come up to me and ask ‘Is it true?’ When I confirm their worst fears, they immediately want to know what on earth I could do when I should be watching TV.
I suppose this is sorta it.
I tell them I have plenty of other things to do. So here is the first one: sewing little things from felt to wear. Because it’s Tuesday. You can totally do this.
You’ll need some felt, some thread, a needle, scissors, a safety pin, some sort of stuffing and a few buttons.
Since May is all about sharing the heart-shaped love, we’re going with a heart shape straight away. Using a template or freehanding it, cut a heart from felt in a size appropriate to what you want to make. Little for a hair pin, medium for a label pin and giant for a pillow. Once you get one heart just as you like it, use it to cut a second just the same.
Choose one of those hearts and add whatever decoration you would like. You might cut another smaller heart and stitch it on, then add some buttons. You might stitch your name or a word straight across the felt. Or you might wish you could freehand cut a bird, realise you have a bird the right size on a stamp, stamp that bird onto felt, cut it out and turn it over, then stitch it town and add some sparkly buttons for it to sit on. Or you might do something else.
Sew a safety pin to the back of the other heart (make sure you get the right side to make the two hearts line up). Or sew whatever else you want to attach here, like a hair clip or a shoelace. Don’t be tempted to sew the safety pin before your design—that will be the time you totally goof and want the other heart for a do-over. So safety-pin second just in case.
Then for the sewing…you’ll need plenty of thread (it takes more than you may guess) and a needle. Read Heather’s tutorial for the best knot ever. It really is.
Hold the two hearts together, just as they should be when they are finished. With that knot in your thread, go to the dip in the middle of the heart. Start with the needle in between the two layers, going up through the top one. Take the needle down to the bottom heart and push back up to the top so that first stitch is secure. Then just keep stitching around, pushing the needle up from the bottom to the top and back again. Stop when you get nearly all the way around, but not quite. You need to have room to add the stuffing. Push the stuffing in (these are little so you can use cotton balls or scrap yarn or whatever else is fluffy if you don’t have traditional stuffing handy) and move it around until you’re happy with it—it’s harder to even it out once it’s sewn in. Then finish your stitches around to where you started, and make sure the last few stitches are nice and secure with a knot. (Don’t worry too much—the back won’t show so if it gets a bit scary, just stitch through to the back and knot it there and no one but you will ever know.)
Pin to something and smile everytime someone asks you where you got such an adorable thing.
Now here’s the fun part: if you make something inspired by this, I hope you’ll share it with everyone! Here’s a badge you can display if you post it on your blog or something like that:
That way, you can share the love by linking back to the instructions if someone wants to know how you made it. :) Plus if you heart flickr, you can post your pictures in the Share the {Crafty} Love Flickr Group By the end of May, it should be filled with images, since there’s a project pretty much every day in May! {I’m just gonna keep saying that because it’s fun.}
And one more thing: I’ve got a lovely little sampler of felt to give to one lucky person who comments on this post. Entries will close one week from today, so 9am London time on Tuesday 8th May. (Just to clarify: you don’t have to be in the UK to win. Anywhere is cool!)
xlovesx
ETA: turning comments off as this one seems to be spam target o’ the day on the internets.
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