Felt Heart Garland - Valentine's Tutorial

I've whipped up a quick tutorial to share with you all, This garland is so easy you'll wonder why you haven't made one before! I know I've left it a bit late what with Valentine's day only two days away but I promise you, this will only take you around an hour or two at most and the result is SO PRETTY!



 Materials:

• Strips of felt in your chosen colours, I used 10cm strips of our lovely woolfelt in Driftwood, Mediterranean Mist and Ruby Red Slipper and still had leftovers for other projects! 
• Thread to match
• Sewing machine
• Scissors / Rotary Cutter/ Cutting mat
• Beading thread (or any heavy weight thread)
• Needle

Ok so first things first, we're going to chop down some of that felt. I started off with Ruby Red Slipper, I halved it to get a 10cm x 45cm strip (discard one half for now), then halved again so I was left with two strips of 5cm x 45cm, again discard one of these and halve your remaining strip so you're left with two 5cm x 22.5cm strips.

Next up we're going to do some sewing! Thread your machine with a thread that matches your felt and with one strip on top of the other, sew one of the long sides around 3/16ths of an inch from the edge. Because we're going to be cutting through this later you'll want to sew a second row of stitches so it's extra secure.

Now, this is where the magic happens! Remove your strip from the machine, open the strips and fold them back on themselves so you've got a long heart shaped tube!

Cool huh? Next up you need to sew the bottom of your heart in the same way around 3/16ths of an inch from the edge remembering to stitch a second row.

Snip all your loose ends and lay your heart tube flat on a cutting mat. Using a ruler, cut your tube into 2cm slices.

Repeat with your remaining colours! I varied the sizes of mine, for Driftwood I used 4cm x 22.5cm strips and for Mediterranean Mist I used 7cm x 22.5cm strips. I also made another strip in Ruby Red Slipper this time 10cm x 22.5cm.

For the larger hearts I stitched a second row where the top of the heart forms at 5/15ths of an inch from the edge to give them a bit more shape.

Next you have two choices, to have a vertical or horizontal garland. I've shown both variations both here for comparison! For the horizontal Garland, arrange your hearts in a fashion you're happy with.

Cut around 1.5m of beading thread, knot a loop in one end and thread your needle on the other, begin threading your felt hearts onto your needle and thread making sure to stay relatively close to the top of each heart otherwise they'll want to hang upside down!

Continue until you've got as many hearts on there as you like, tie a loop at the end of your thread and there you have it, one cute Valentine's Garland!

For the Vertical garland, loop one end of your thread as before and simply thread your hearts from top to bottom instead! You could finish these off with buttons, beads or anything you like!

 Have fun! If you make one of these we would love to see it!

Louise ♥