Felt Heart Garland - Pin It Do It

by Bex

This little project was so much fun to do and really relaxing, perfect for the last couple of weeks pre-babies!

The idea came from one of the very first nursery idea pictures I pinned when we decided on a rainbow colour scheme.  It's a fab heart garland from Etsy for £40.42.  I knew I could make this myself and would enjoy it.  I already had most of the colours of embroidery thread and some felt.

Image Source via Pinterest

Luckily for me I have a very crafty Mum (who's also on Pinterest) with lots of awesome craft tools and machines and while she was still in Saudi, before I even asked, she had cut out loads of colours of felt hearts in two sizes for me!  As she used her die-cutter, they were all perfectly uniform so they matched up easily for sewing.  Obviously you could just make or find a template to cut out the hearts by hand if you don't have a die-cutter or super crafty Mum!

I finally got around to doing something with them recently and spent many a happy evening on the sofa watching TV while hand-stitching the hearts together.  I used a simple blanket stitch (after a quick reminder from Mum how to do it!) and stuffed each one with some stuffing out of an old misshapen pillow.

I finished them off by tying a knot in the pointy end and burying it inside before bringing the end of the thread through the stuffing and cutting off before straightening out the point again.

Then I simply threaded them onto a pale grey piece of embroidery thread (the same colour as the wall I planned to hang them on) and tied a loop in each end.  They're just hung on pins above the Hemnes Daybed (I'd have preferred them to be higher on the wall but wanted them flush against it and the slope starts too low unfortunately) and I spaced them out properly after they were hung.

I still think they look great though and it's another thing I can proudly say I made for the twins' room.
:)

If you fancy making one yourself, you'll need:

Your choice of colours of felt (50p per sheet in Hobbycraft and more than enough for multiple hearts from each sheet).
Heart template (drawn on paper or greaseproof paper would work well)
Tailor's chalk or a pen which will mark the felt
Scissors
Embroidery threads in matching colours (90p each from Hobbycraft) plus white or grey to thread onto.
Needle
Stuffing (mine was from an old pillow but you can get it in Hobbycraft for £3)

If you choose the 7 standard rainbow colours and repeat them, and assuming you have a basic sewing kit, you could make this for around £13.70.  If you sew them like the one in the Pinterest example which looks to be sewn with just white edges on each coloured heart and on a white thread, or like me already have most of the felt and threads in the right colours, it would only cost around £8.30.