Make A Heart tutorial Part One

This is a fun way to use some of the scraps of fabric and batting you have been saving. Make a few for Valentines or Christmas; these are addictive!

My brain and patience cannot upload and move around 30+ pictures at one time so I’ll have to do this tutorial in two parts.

The foundation
What you’ll needFabric scraps; there’s no such thing as too small scraps for this project. My biggest pieces are ca 3” * 2”

Scraps of batting, any low loft batting will do.

Cover one side with fusible web (great way to use webbing that has loosened from the paper; just cut the webbing to size and fuse it to the batting using an appliqué sheet or baking paper for protection).
Spray baste or fuse backing to the other side. My samples are ca 11” * 12” big.
Tulle. Different coloured tulle makes different result. I have used white, red and silvery grey for the samples.
Fluffy yarn
Fun, fluffy snowball yarn works too (take note of the last part of the tutorial though)
Pins (my favourite pin cushion made by daughter)

And what you’ll do
Cut away or leave those threads as you like
Start in a corner with a scrap; you’ll work on the web covered side of your batting:-) Place the next scrap so that there is a bit of overlap
Do the first “row”, and start building the next. Just place the scraps wherever you like; if you’re not happy, you can always add some more or replace pieces
To break up bigger pieces, you can put a narrow strip on top
When you’re happy, use the iron to fuse everything in place
Hold the piece up against the light to see if there are any holes. If something falls off, just put it back. Cover any holes with new pieces.
Here are two of my foundations ready for Part Two.

Make A Heart tutorial Part Two

Cover it up
Cut a piece of tulle a bit bigger than your foundation and place on the foundation. Start pinning in the centre. I have only used 9 pins, centre, sides, top & bottom and corners.
Red tulle

White tulle (does really not photograph well!)
Silvery grey tulle


And off to the sewing machine
QuiltingI have quilted my pieces with straight lines; you can quilt yours any way you like.
To get a straight first line, use a piece of masking tape and sew a line the width of your presser foot from the tape. Continue quilting the whole piece removing pins (and masking tape) as you go.
The white one is quilted with hot orange thread in vertical lines
The red one with hot pink thread in horizontal lines
The grey one with dark red thread in vertical lines (sorry, horrible light...)

HeartCut out a heart template of paper, fabric or use a scrap of batting like I have. It’s very forgiving to pin, does not unravel, is reusable and easy to sew around.

Pin it to the middle of your foundation
Using a thread that matches the yarn you will use, stitch a line just outside the template
Remove the template, and you will have a visible heart
Put your special cording foot on your machine if you have one, or use your regular foot. Set your stitch to a zigzag; 2mm wide and 2mm long works well.

Thread the yarn through the slot/groove in your foot (from the front), leaving a little tail at the back of the foot.

Start stitching at the bottom of the heart. If your yarn is “directional” like this one, make sure you sew with the fluff, not against it!
Follow the heart shape all the way to the beginning. Do not cut the yarn; continue sewing a line outside the first, then inside. Add more lines if you like.
This is the grey one
The white one (I’m going to add lots of embellishments on this)Maybe something like I did on “One World One Heart”

And what happened to the red piece?

Just because you are able to slide the fun, snowball yarn through your cording foot
It might not work that well after all. See how it has stretched??? Oh …! Use your regular foot on bumpy yarn!!
I'll need a few nights in front of the TV unpicking all the stitches on this one and finish the three of them.

Have fun!