Heart Felt Expression

handmade heart

A handmade heart created with two colors of felt, and blanket-stitched by hand with faux-pearl and bead details.

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Use a cookie cutter to create a paper template for the larger hearts. Put two pieces of felt together, pin the template down and cut through both pieces. Then, reduce the size of the paper template but cutting away an equal amount of paper all the way around it. Pin it to another color of felt and cut out (and keep) another heart. Decorate the smaller heart with embroidery, beads, sequins, etc. -- whatever YOUR HEART desires.
Using a contrasting color of embroidery thread (3 of 6 strands) and a blanket stitch, attach the smaller heart to one of the larger hearts. The faux pearls can be threaded on (one at a time) as you sew around it - every other stitch. Then, again using another contrasting color of thread, stitch the two large hearts together (wrong-sides together), leaving an opening for stuffing.

Stuff using cotton, poly fiber-fill, recycled scraps of fabric -- or whatever you have handy (this one was filled with cotton balls).
Once you finish sewing all the way around, you can use an extra piece of embroidery thread to make a hanger at the top. When sewing the smaller heart, you can leave a small gap at the top to make a pocket where love tiny notes can be tucked for the one you love.