Fabric and Crochet Heart Tutorial: Part 1

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a great weekend :)

Mr P. came back from Belgium, to lots of love and fanfare: we had a spur-of-the-moment best friends invited dinner party (which was wonderful!) to celebrate, and on Saturday afternoon, Mr P. took the girls to see the new Alice in Wonderland movie. I stayed home to work on this tutorial (am I loyal?...or what...call me Rover ;) ), but didn't get very far, as my dear friends Heinrich and Mandy called to ask if they could come early (of course!!!!), and we poured some excellent red wine, and chatted....

Soooo.... dear blog friends, my deepest apologies for the delayed posting....

Well, I haven't forgotten or abandonned the Mystery Blocks...hope you are all knitting and slaving away at making them, but I will post the follow-up next week, and wanted to do something a little different in between!

A lot of people left comments indicating they wanted tutorials on quick, easy to make items, that can be useful, gifted, etc. I am compiling a list (watch and see...), but while this process was being brainstormed, the idea for this tutorial below, leapt up, hand in the air, yelling..."Pick me!, Me! Me! Meeeeee...!". So here it is! I will leave some ideas for completely different uses, tomorrow at the end of the second part of the Tutorial. :)

Fabric and Crochet Heart Tutorial: Part 1

Requirements:

Smallish bits of fabric
Merino Fleece stuffing (or stuffing of your choice, eg polyester etc)
A sewing machine that can do plain 'ol straight stitch
or a hand that can do plain 'ol straight stitch ;)
Sewing cotton in a colour to match your fabric
Scissors
General use sewing needle
Tapestry needle
DK (double knit thickness/weight) yarn (I have used Rowan's Handknit cotton)
Crochet Hook 3.75mm
An iron




Step 1. I have the pattern available as a PDF file, which I will send to anyone that email's me requesting it... Although this is my original pattern, and is copyright protected, I give permission for you to make up this item for personal use, charity use, selling etc....AS LONG AS YOU
DON'' T MASS PRODUCE IT!!!! I really do not want to see some business churning them out like nobody's business. I feel that people should be able to make something to sell and earn a bit of income, but still respecting the original creator's vision for the item...so enjoy to your heart's content friends!!! :)

Step 2. Choose a fabric. I have made this heart from a thrift store pillow case, something you can usually find if you search a bit. Really, 'tho, any pretty fabric is fine... You can play with scale and proportion of pattern...just rememeber that the pattern fits on an A4 paper size, so if the scale of the pattern of the fabric is huge, you might lose the overall effect...

Step 3. Cut the pattern out. You will see that there is a turquoise dot at the point of the heart pieces...this is just to show you how to overlay the smaller piece onto the bigger piece later, ie the points must match up! Where I have indicated "Cut Two, one reverse", you cut the piece out from a single layer of fabric, turn the paper pattern piece over (NOT the fabric), and cut out the second fabric piece . You always place the pattern pieces onto the right side of the fabric. It doesn't always show clearly on this green and pink fabric I have used, because it is quite thin, but that's how you do it :)

Step 4. Right! The pattern pieces have been cut out and all laid out, right side up.

Step 5. We'll work on the pointy small bit first. Take the piece on the left side (Step 4. pic), and flip it over onto the other piece, essentially placing the right sides of the bits facing.

Step 6. Sew together as indicated, using straight stitch.

Step 7. Open up, and press the seam flat.

Step 8. Fold so the two wrong sides of the fabric are facing, ie the seam is enclosed and hidden.
Press again.

Step 9. Place the newly made bit onto the big heart piece. Make sure that the right side of the big heart is facing you.

Step 10. Make sure the heart points match up.

Step 11. Pin carefully.

Step 12. Sew pieces together as indicated. Press flat.

Step 13. Take the other big heart piece, and place it onto your sewn heart, making sure that both right sides are facing each other.

Step 14. Note: Leave the small indicated area unsewn. You will use this opening to turn your heart inside out.

Step 15. Pin carefully all around, sandwiching all the layers together.

Step 16. Sew along the outside edge, leaving the small area from before, unsewn.

Step 17. Using sharp-nosed scissors, snip/clip the seam edge, as shown...do not cut the actual seam...This makes things easier when turning work inside out and pressing.

Step 18. Turn your heart inside out, and making sure all the seams are nicely pushed out, press flat.

Step 19. Remember the small open area? It hasn't been sewn up, it just looks like from the pic above because I folded the seam allowances inwards, as shown.

Step 20. Stuff the heart using whatever stuffing you prefer. I have used a gorgeous soft 100% merino fleece, which is so soft and gorgeous and natural... it also stuffs evenly and doesn't leave lumpy bits.... You can get contact my friend Linda, if you would like to purchase some...

Step 21. You'll now close the opening, using a matress stitch... I apologise for the lack of sharpness of the pics, didn't look properly while taking them (really bad me!!). I hope you can follow along ok....Thread a general sewing needle with cotton thread. Make a knot in the end, and starting at one edge of the opening, insert the needle as shown, pull thread through, go to next step.

Step 22. Insert a little way along the open edge, as seen above, and pull thread through...

Step 23. Do the other side of the open edge...

Step 24. I have included this pic, just to summarize the procedure. I hope it makes sense...
Continue until you have reached the other end of the opening.

Step 25. Gently pull your thread through...and hey Presto! the seam closes up!!! Finish off with a double back stitch to anchor your stitching...

Step 26. You have finished the first part of this project...cool! :)

Tomorrow we embellish....

If you would like the pattern emailed to you, please send a request to heidibearscreativeblog@gmail.com


In celebration of all things heart, this was a joy to see... don't you just love a heart?

Other interesting links: Liked this, really??? ...no... not really (for me at least!)

Word of the day

Cardiomania

a condition describing a mania for hearts

Have a lovely evening,

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)