I usually make my girls some sort of crafty something for Valentine's Day. I was cleaning a pile from my work area (piles and kids... amirite??) and came across some white, red, and purple fleece left over from Christmas crafting. I had the idea to make some little sewn hearts and fill them with candies.
I started by cutting out a variety of hearts from my fabric. Two big hearts to be sewn together to form the pouch, and one for the top as decoration. Pro tip: use some double sided tape to keep things in place while sewing. A little bit of glue would work too.
Using some very thin crochet thread, I started some decorative chain stitches by coming up from the back and immediately going back down next to where the thread came through, but not all the way through.
Holding the thread to the side, I brought the tip of the needle through the fabric, about 1/4 of an inch from the last stitch in. Make sure the thread loops around the tip of the needle - this will form the 'chain stitch' that is held down by the next stitch.
Gently pull the thread tight until the loop closes and forms the chain. I'm realizing now, that gold thread on white fabric is probably not the best contrast to show this stitch. My apologies, this is my first time doing this kind of thing.
Repeat until stitches are around the entire edge of the heart.
Next, I used a blanket stitch to sew the two red hearts together, leaving an opening at the top to fill with goodies and a note. Bring the needle up through both layers, and tie a knot on the top edge of the heart. Then, insert the needle through the top, going through both layers again. This is tricky until you get the hang of it - then it's pretty easy. Before tightening the thread to start another stitch, make sure the needle has gone through the shrinking loop.
The way the blanket stitch looks reminds me of the edges of a pie. Mmmm... pie. I did a series of three stitches to bridge the point at the bottom of the heart.
I had a lot of fun making these, and really, you can be super creative with decorating these and filling them. After the girls eat the candies, we might fill them with stuffing and make little pillows out of them. I hope you enjoyed reading about how I've spent the last few days - and I only poked myself with the needle twice! Winning!!!