Southerners In The Great White North

I planned to post this tutorial a few days ago and then life happened and got in the way. It’s funny how it seems to do that all the time, isn’t it?  There has been a lot going on with my family in the last few days, and hopefully it will all turn out okay, but I wanted to get this posted before Valentine’s Day is over.

I’ve been seeing the cutest handmade bunting all over the place online lately and when I signed up for a Valentine’s swap, I decided to try making some of my own. Even though I’m late getting this posted, it was a quick make, so you still have time to whip some out for a last minute gift if you happen to sew at supersonic speed. Or, you know, save the idea for next year!

I picked out some fabric for this a while ago, and I decided I wanted to make 5 hearts. You can make as many or as few as you like. A single heart would be a cute door hanger for a little girl’s room.

First, cut a heart from folded paper, so that it will be symmetrical.

Trace the heart onto your fabric with a fabric marking pen.

You will need to cut two pieces of fabric for each heart. I wanted 5 hearts for my bunting, so I cut 10 hearts. I had 5 fat quarters, so I stacked my fabric up so I could cut 5 at the same time.

If you want plain hearts, you can skip this part, but part of the fun for me was embellishing a little. I got some ribbon and felt at Michael’s and added them to the front of my hearts. With the felt, I cut out some smaller hearts with pinking shears and used the lettering on my sewing machine to add words like “Love” and “Be Mine” to make them look like conversation hearts. Then I sewed them on to the fabric hearts. On others, I just sewed some ribbon or lace.

After you add your embellishments, put the front and back of your heart right sides together. Place a piece of quilt batting on top and pin this sandwich together.

Turn it over so that the wrong side of one of the fabric hearts is on top. Then, starting about an inch and a half from the bottom of the heart sew around the heart to about an inch and a half away from the bottom, leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. This leaves the point at the bottom of the heart open to turn your heart right sides out. You may want to make a mark where you should begin and end sewing, but I skipped this step.

Trim around the curves and into the point with pinking shears.

Turn the heart right side out through the opening at the bottom and then press. Then topstitch around the heart. I tried out some of the decorative stitches on my new machine!

Here are the hearts I made. Aren’t they cute?!

Now, you need to put the hearts together. For this, I used the buttonhole feature of my machine for the first time. It was so easy, it was just like MAGIC!

Take the ribbon you have chosen and measure it. Then find a button the same size – you want your button holes to be the right size for this button. That way the hearts will fit on the ribbon, but it won’t be loose so they won’t slide around.

My machine has a slot on the bottonhole foot where you place the button and the machine does all the measuring for you. If you don’t know how to use yours, check the manual for your machine.

Make a small dot with a fabric marking pen where you want the bottom of your buttonhole to be. I placed mine about 1/2 inch from the edge at the widest part of the heart. Sew the buttonholes and then clip them open. Measure out the ribbon. I used 4 1/2 feet for the 5 hearts I made. Thread the ribbon through the buttonholes and you’re done!

Hang your bunting and admire your beautiful work!

If you aren’t the sewing type, I’d be happy to make some custom just for you. Hearts or any other shape you like! Just convo me on Etsy and I’ll set up a listing for you!