Valentine Love

A few weeks ago, I was cruising along on Pinterest killin' time and saw a Pin-tastic idea for Valentine Pillows!  (Catch my new word?) It wasn't a tutorial, just a pretty little picture.  

I think it was more Pin-tastic because I had ALL the materials in my possession.  Win-Win!  I'm on a personal mission this year to shop my closet before I shop some of my favorite fabric shops. I'm not saying I won't buy anything else but I need to control that fabric chaos!  My closet is spilling with too much cotton color!  You can probably relate right?

Since it was just a picture I didn't have any directions. I made it up as I went along. I'll give you some of the highlights to making this pillow come to life. 

Materials needed

Linen fabric or some other kind of loose weave fabric. Burlap would be super cute too!

Scissors

Fabric pen

Embroidery hoop

Tape

Ribbon or Twill

Pillow Insert or stuffing

Large needle

This is the largest needle I had. Not quite big enough to thread the ribbon and sew with it through the linen.  Might be able to use a needle on burlap though.  While I contemplated waiting to make it until I had a better needle I knew it'd probably be Easter before the pillows were finished!  So I had to improvise.

I turned the end of my ribbon into a self threader.  I wanted to create it to look like the end of a shoelace, if that helps you visualize. I covered it with tape and then cut it at a diagonal.  Using some more tape I wrapped it around the end to help the tip be more firm. 

Next I hooped my fabric and hand drew the heart I was going to stitch.  

Take your needle and poke holes in the fabric. The bigger the hole you can make the better. I found it easier to thread the ribbon through the fabric. 

Leave enough on the ends so you can tie a bow. 

Should look something like this. Take it off the hoop and sew up that pillow!  I used stuffing this time instead of an insert. This was a great idea because I enlisted my girls to help me stuff them. Instant kid craft!  Another Win-Win!

Pin-tastic turned too cute to just make one!  LOVE!