Why not make a DIY felt heart ornament because when it comes to Christmas, homemade crafts add a soft touch to your Christmas tree. Something about knowing you put time into making your own decoration, even if it’s just one out all on the tree, brings warmth to how you see your tree.
This DIY felt heart craft gives the feel of a gingerbread decoration because of how the edge of the heart is outlined in white, like when you draw clothes onto gingerbread people. Or how you glue together bits of a gingerbread house with white icing.
Equipment you will need:
- Red felt
- White thread
- Needle
- Thick string or small cut of twine
- Filling material – this can be scrap fabric or specific filling material.
How to Make A Christmas Felt Heart Ornament
1. Cutting The Felt
First things first, cut two squares from your red felt. These can be any size, you want but we recommend 5 inches by 5 inches. Cutting squares first will make it easier to draw an even heart.
Then draw your heart on one square, it doesn’t matter if you take a few attempts to make the heart how you want it no one will see the lines when you sew the project as they will be hidden on the inside.
Next, you need to place the square with a heart onto the plain square and cut them out.
Once you have cut the hearts out of your felt. Just line them up so that the side with the pen lines is sandwiched in the middle and put them to the side. And get your sewing items ready.
Next, you need to prepare your needle and thread. Pull a thread roughly twice the size of your arm, when it is threaded and tied together at the ends it will be the size of your arm. This should give you plenty of thread to work with. We are using simple white embroidery floss. You can get this from any craft store but in the UK Hobbycraft is a good option.
2. The Stitching
For the decorative edge of the heart, we are going to do a blanket stitch. We recommend you come in half a centimetre with your blanket stitch.
To do a blanket stitch you need to start by getting some thread and pulling it through your needle. Tie the ends together to secure it and then get your fabric.
You then put the thread through one bit of fabric, so the knot is between both fabric bits. Next, you pull the fabric together to hide the knot and take your needle through both layers of fabric through the same hole.
Make sure all the stitches you are doing are going in through the same side.
When you have a loop over the edge pull the thread through that loop to make a knot at the edge. Keep the stitches an equal distance apart for a neater finish. This creates a secure edge to your felt craft as well as a beautiful finish.
3. Filling And Finishing The Heart
You continue this until you have a centimetre or two before the first stitch you made so that you can fill the heart. When you filled the heart as much as you want – leaving a little space open without filling – you to continue the stitch and tie off the thread.
Once finished with the main stitches, you go to the middle stitch at the top and thread through some thread or yarn or twine to create the ornament hanging loop. When that’s in, tie it closed and voila. You have a hanging heart ornament.
This has been a fun little advanced crafter tutorial on how to make a DIY felt heart ornament. Feel free to tell us how you do following along! We hope you’ve enjoyed trying out a blanket stitch.
Good luck!
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