Felt Heart Garland

There seems to be an overflow of heart garlands all over blogland this Valentine season, and I was especially in love with this particular one I pinned on Pinterest. 

I decided after getting a beautiful bundle of felt in the mail from my mother-in-law to make my own, and it was definitely inspired by that heart garland on Etsy.  I made mine a little different by sewing the hearts horizontally and closer together to make it more durable (especially with little grabbing hands around my house), and I added a ribbon to each end to make it possible to re-tie and re-use year after year, without ruining the thread.  It was very easy to make, and you could make these in so many color combinations and shapes (I am already thinking of a gingerbread shape garland in Christmas colors for Christmas).

You will need:

heart shaped cookie cutter (or stencil - you can even print one off the computer and use that for a stencil - mine was 3 inches)

assorted felt

2 - 12 inch pieces of ribbon (for the ends)

sewing machine and thread (any color, I used white) or a sewing needle if you want to make this by hand (which you can do, it will just take a little longer)

Directions:

This will make one 76 inch heart garland (28 hearts) plus the length you add with your ribbon on the ends.  You can make this longer or shorter, there is no wrong way to do this :)

Trace your heart on the felt with a pen or pencil.  Continue until you have traced 28 hearts of various or the same colors (totally up to you). 

Cut the hearts out.  I find that felt is easiest to cut using kid's scissors.  Not sure why, but it works best.

Lay out your colors, and then pick them up one by one to make a stack of the order you want them sewn together.

I made my stack randomly with no order or rhyme or reason.  Cause I was putting my type A personality aside for just a bit.  Crazy, I know.

Now before you start sewing these together, it is important to work out any frustration you might have with your sewing machine.  Apparently, I was having a lot of frustration.  I don't remember this, but Adam captured it on the camera so I can't deny it.  For those that know me well, I tend to roll my eyes and make lots of different faces. My mother always told me not to make ugly faces because my face would freeze that way.  I don't listen very well...

Okay, machine fixed and frustration gone...time to start sewing those hearts together!  Line the first one up and sew across the upper middle (I think this was about an inch from the top), back stitching slightly at the beginning to hold those stitches in place.

Right before you get to the end of the first heart, slide another heart right under the sewing machine foot.  I didn't leave any gap in between my hearts, but you can if you want. 

Continue sewing across the hearts under you have sewn them all together in a single line.  I back stitched slightly to hold my stitches at the end of the last heart.

Remember those two pieces of ribbon?  These are going to come in handy for tying your garland where you want it go.

Line the first piece of ribbon up on the back of the very first heart, right over the stitch line, about halfway in.

Sew it in place, going right to the end of the heart.  Now do the same thing with the very last heart in your garland.

Now you are done!  Doesn't that look pretty?

 I really love the assorted colors of felt.

Hang your garland up on a stairway...

 Or over a doorway...

Or over window.  This was so much fun, and really went very fast.  I made a second one for my friend Danielle.  I might even leave this up after Valentine's Day because it is so pretty and adds some fun color to my living room.

Happy Valentine's Day!