As I have been posting my heart bunting up on my etsy shop this week I thought some of you might fancy making some of your own. I am loving heart bunting at the minute - and although we are approaching that time of year when the shops fill with heart themed products I am of the opinion that a bit of heart decoration and bunting is totally acceptable all year round. So here goes - I hope you have fun!
What you need:
Fabric of your choice, stuffing, ribbon, heart template (or great free hand skills), needle and thread, scissors, pins and chalk or pencil.
1) Choose your fabric and cut it a little bit longer in height than your heart template to make for ease of cutting.
2)Like so . . . .
3) Now fold your fabric backwards and forwards until it is stacked in a square like you see in the picture. You need to ensure you don't do too many hearts at once otherwise you won't get a neat shape - especially be aware of this if you are using thicker fabric. Then pin your heart template onto your fabric and cut round it. If you are going to make 4 hearts on your bunting then you must end up with 8 individual hearts cut out.
4) You then should end up with 4 pairs of hearts. Place them right side of fabric facing towards each other.
5) Now mark where you want the ribbon to be on the hearts. I chose towards the bottom of the curve as you can see. You need to ensure you mark this in the same place on each heart to avoid a wonky garland. Mark on both sides of the heart.
7) Now cut out your strips of ribbon. I was making 4 hearts so needed 2 longer pieces of ribbon and 2 shorter pieces. The longer strips are for the edges so that it can be hung up and the shorter pieces go in between the hearts. The length is your choice but I used about 10cm between each heart and 20cm for the 2 edge ribbons.
6) Now move across to your sewing machine if you are using one ( if not just set up on a flat surface). Place your ribbon (long piece first) in between your two heart pieces and leave a small piece out the edge where you have marked. Now start sewing from just below that point. Once you have sewn over the ribbon I find it helps to take the long piece and bring it round to where you started sewing so there is no risk of accidentally catching it as you sew the edges.
8) Continue sewing round the edge of the heart until you get to 2 cms before your next mark. Then take a shorter piece of ribbon and attach as instructed above and shown in the pictures. Continue sewing round the heart and stop sewing about 2cm before you reach the first stitch you did.
9) You should end up with something that looks like this.
10) Use the ribbon to help you gently tease the heart out through that gap you left so that you have right sides of the fabric facing you and just a small section remaining to be sewn.
You now need to repeat the above instructions on each heart. Always remember to work out how the fabric will turn right side so that you get the ribbons attached to the right side. For example if you want to attach a heart to the right hand side of the heart below the ribbon will be sewn into the right hand side of the next heart. When you turn it right sides out you will have the ribbon attached to the left side of the second heart and sitting to the right hand side of the one below.
11) So now you have this line of hearts all linked together and ready for filling
12) Now this is where you pop into a comfy sofa, stick the telly on and merrily fill your hearts with stuffing. Once you have done this take your needle and thread and stitch the little gaps closed. Cut loose threads and there you have it you are done!
Please do share pictures of your heart garlands with me. Either post them here or pop over to my facebookpage and when you do I'll give them a share. Have fun crafting!
x
