Hi there! I felt like doing something for Valentine's Day this week but, I wasn't sure what. So, I went to my local JoAnn Fabrics Store and browsed around. It was there I remembered that for the last few years I have made a Valentine garland. I wanted to do something different, not the same old hearts I had made or used before. And, then I came upon some flannel fabric which just happened to be on sale for 60% off. Such a deal! I found some puppy fabric that seemed perfect! There were puppies and hearts all over it! What could be better?!
Here is the list of my supplies:
- Puppy themed flannel fabric
- Red flannel fabric
- A heart-shaped cookie cutter
- Red embroidery floss
- A needle
- Red Baby Rick Rack
- A regular pencil
- A tiny bit of pillow stuffing
The first thing I did was traced the cookie cutter heart shape onto the fabric, which was still folded the way it came from the store with two layers together. This way you have two layers of fabric all nice and tidy with which to make your stuffed hearts. I traced the shape with a regular pencil. For the puppy fabric I traced the larger outside dimension of the heart and for the red fabric I traced inside the heart cookie cutter. I wanted the hearts to be slightly different in size. I thought that would look better once they were attached to the garland and side by side.
(I apologize for only having photos of the red hearts. As usual, I got caught up in the creative moment and forgot to take pictures while I was making the "puppy" hearts.)
Next, I took three strands of the red embroidery floss and tied a knot at one end. I inserted the needle in between the two layers of flannel and hid the knot inside the heart. From there I started rustically hand-sewing the layers together going up and down through the two layers of fabric and sewing the layers together. I tried to stay about 1/4 " from the outline edge of the heart.
I continued going around the shape until I was about an inch from where I had started. At this point I stuffed some poly-fil (pillow stuffing) into the heart shape to make it a little puffy. Once stuffed, I continued my hand sewing and ended where I had begun. The finishing off is a little tricky because you have to secure the thread while trying not to make it look to apparent or bulky. I simply thread through the same area a few times and knot it as best I can on the back side of the heart. This might take some practice to make look right.
Next, I sewed a little piece of rick rack to the top of the "puppy" hearts to give them a bit more interest. I left the red hearts as is.
Some of the puppies had hearts included in the fabric and some had a puppy paw print.
I alternated the two kinds of puppy hearts when I attached them to the rick rack garland string. The pattern for the garland was a heart puppy heart, a red heart, a paw puppy heart, a red heart and so on until it was finished. There were nine hearts in total.
I then made the garland by attaching the rick rack string to the back of the flannel hearts. I hand stitched this part, as well. I left 2 1/4" of rick rack string in between each heart.
I thought they were kind of adorable!
The funny thing is...I don't have a dog! One of these days my husband and I will probably add a puppy to our family as we have in the past but for now, grand-doggies will have to suffice. I can enjoy my puppy Valentine garland in the meantime, though :).
***Please note that I have not been compensated for this post.
