Fabric and Crochet Heart Tutorial: Part 2

Hi all!

Hope you had a good day so far... :)

Above is a pic taken in the province of Mpumalanga, in the eastern part of South Africa, near a small town called Sabie. This area is famous for its Sappi planations, and is also one of the most popular places in SA for mountain bikers!

Fabric and Crochet Heart Tutorial: Part 2

Ok, so yesterday you made the basic heart. If you would like to embellish it a little further, you can, but it's also fine as is I think...

Today you will do backstitching around the edge of the heart, and tomorrow, crochet a scalloped border around it...

Step 1. Requirements:
A ball of yarn in your choice of colour
A tapestry needle
A pair of scissors
A completed heart


Step 2. Cut off approximately 1m of yarn from the ball. Thread through the tapestry needle but do not make a knot in the tail. Starting at the point of the heart, insert needle as shown. Pull the thread through, leaving a tail of about 10cm.

Step 3. Re-insert the needle where you started, but exit the needle further along the heart edge, about the same distance as you did in the previous step.

Step 4. Pull through the thread, but not too tightly...you don't want to pucker the fabric.

Step 5. Repeat this sequence until you have stitched all around the heart.

Step 6. This is what it should look like, wip!

Step 7. When you get to the point of the heart, let the thread exit, snip off leaving about 10cm, and then tie a knot, using the starting tail of yarn. Voila! You are done... :)
Tomorrow I will post the crochet part of the Tutorial.

Here are a few ideas of what you could use this little heart for:

1. A pincushion... scissors in the pocket, pins where the rose pattern is, also you could put your tape measure, unpicker etc into the pocket and add a small pop stud, or botton to close the pocket. If you are really clever, you could put a zip in, before you sew up all the pieces...

2. Sew a magnet on the back of the heart, stick it to your fridge, leave notes to your kids, family, husband inside...

3. Create a lavender sachet, use in your drawers, cupboards etc... or give to a friend :)

4. Wrap a gift, place heart on top, and tuck your card inside. You can easily change the size of the pattern using a photocopier...

5. Attach to a key, hang on a door knob, put on a clothes hanger...

6. Make lots of these hearts, and string together using ribbon...make an advent calendar, a Christmas garland for your tree or just for decor, make a bunting with someone's name for a birthday...

7. Make the heart in Christmassy fabrics, attach a ribbon to it, and hang as a Christmas Tree decoration. You can even tuck some cinnamon sticks into the pocket for scent...

8. Use as a place marker for a special event...tuck each person's name into the pocket of their heart, which can be a gift to take home. Nice for bridal showers, baby showers, Christenings...

9. Make it from cute fabric, embellish with appropriate items and create a tooth mouse heart. The tooth goes into the pocket, and the gift (whatever it is)...replaces the tooth.

10. Enlarge the pattern using a photocopier, make a cushion...

If anyone has any other ideas...please leave a comment...much appreciated :)

Blocking your squares and rectangles.

A quick note on blocking...

When you kave knitted something and you have used Stocking Stitch (all knit stitches one side, purl on the other side), your item will have a tendency to curl up at the edges. This is because the knit stitch is a slightly different size to the purl stitch...

So...what to do? Well, you block!

I like to wet my entire item in cold water with some fabric softener added in. I wet it thoroughly, press gently between two cotton towels (it still has to be damp), and then pin it on all edges to a fat cotton towel. I have used my ironing board with a towel placed over it.

When you pin, you may need to stretch the edges a bit so that you get the size that you need, ie 5x5 cm, 10x5 cm.

Allow to dry naturally out of the sun. You'll pull out the pins and find that the blocks are flat and the right size! Its a simple process, and doesn't take as long as what it looks like... :)

Chat to you tomorrow!

Lots of Love,

Heidi :)