Felt Heart Tutorial for Valentine's Day

We love any occasion for crafting, and Valentine's Day is no different. We've come up with a super fast tutorial for your Valentine's Day gifting, a sweet little heart pouch that is perfect for love notes or treats, and can be sewn by hand in less than 10 minutes for easy replication (office or school gifts!).

First, download the heart template image (above - control-click Save As or right-click Save), a sweet robust heart with room for tucking in your messages. If you prefer a larger heart, simply resize the image to your preferred look. We've made ours with our rich wool felt, a luxurious fiber that will ensure they'll keep it beyond the holiday. We love this construction because beyond Valentine's Day, it can be used to store away keepsakes such as jewelry, and the natural fibers make for safe-keeping. The pouches are hand-sewn with striped baker's twine, a cute embellishment that serves a purpose, too. We'll show you how to stitch it together with a blanket stitch and a regular running stitch so you have options!

1. Cut out 2 hearts from your template. You can mix & match colors here if you'd like by cutting each heart out from a different color.

2. Stitch it up!

You'll want your stitching to puncture at least 1/8" from your edge, to ensure that your stuffing won't stretch the holes too close to the edge of your heart. You'll begin stitching at the highest peak of each heart "hump", leaving about a 1.5 inch gap across the top for inserting treats or notes.

Running stitch:
This one's the easiest, using a simple up & down method for stitching. Make a knot at the end of your twine, using about 10 inches of twine to make sure you've got plenty to get around. Insert the needle between your two layers of felt so that your knot will be concealed, and come up either side. Run along the edge of your "sandwich", moving up and down at equal lengths to give the edge that dotted look. Knot off between your felt pieces on the other side once you've made your way around, so both knots are concealed.

Blanket stitch:
The blanket stitch gives the heart an extra thick border, and provides some nice variety if you're making a lot of these and want to try out something different on some. You'll begin by inserting your needle across both hearts on the wrong side (the felt is the same on both sides so it won't matter here). Flip the hearts right side out once you've stitched across, and you'll have a little loop that runs around the top of the heart pieces. Your thread will still be wedged between the hearts. Bring up your thread between the hearts on the left side, pulling it across to the right of that first stitch, and inserting again about 1/4" on the back RIGHT side of your original stitch. Pull forward, loop through the left side of that top loop, and continue moving clockwise around your heart. If you're stuck on the blanket stitch, find a great step-by-step tutorial HERE.

You're all set! Tuck a sweet note inside and spread some love this Valentine's Day!