Hearts
It’s that time of year—Spring is hinting it will
return, bringing sunshine, flowers and warm breezes. Summer will be pushing
behind at its heels. Before Spring even arrives I can already see its eager effects—almost
half of my backyard is visible again, as if it's throwing off its winter-white
blanket and preparing ready to jump up and dance around again.
I'll be dancing with it!
I can hear the whisper of water
dripping through my downspouts as the snow overhead thaws. It’s saying, “I've been on this lonesome roof way too long. I’m heading downstream to lounge in the lake before I soar
overhead in a puffy white cloud and look for a lofty mountain stream to explore."
My son has been looking at his bike with longing—another
sign of Spring—and today started it up with a roar!
I’m glad Valentine’s Day comes in February—a cold
winter month that sometimes is socked in by fog, ice storms, snow or drizzly
rain clouds. Valentines arrives dressed in happy pinks with sweet reminders that
the garden will soon be dressed in similar shades.
Usually I bake and frost cookies,
but this year I’ve decided to skip it. I’ve been making hearts a little differently the past few days…
This year I’ve been hard at work helping my little
Grand prepare for her preschool party. For her personalized valentines we chose blue—the color of Spring
skies, and added hints of pink, her favorite color.
How to make little denim rag heart pockets for
Valentine’s giving:
* It’s simple—no special pattern is needed at all. Just fold a paper in half and cut out a heart. Everyone learned that basic technique before fourth grade. If you don’t like your first attempt, adjust things and make the second one longer, leaner, fatter, smaller, fuller, or whatever you wish. Just make sure it's big enough to hold a love note and treat after it's assembled.
* Cut a fabric front and back from old jeans (washed and dried first). Cut out a pocket for the front, using the bottom of the same paper heart pattern. Be sure to add enough to the top edge for turning it under if you don’t want a raw edge and frays topping your pocket. I added ½ inch. The pocket can have seams and other details from the fabric in it. Play with it and be creative! Make sure it's deep enough to hold what you're planning to hide inside.
* Cut a thin layer of dacron batting (leftover quilt batting), making it about ½ inch smaller all the way around than the fabric.
One pocket above was made using the waistband and nearby little coin pocket.
The other pocket came from a top-stitched seam and has
an added little pocket with a button for trim. I finished off the top of the pockets with a rolled hem.
Take care when you're sewing near rivets and through several layers of fabric!
Now
it’s assembly time!
* Lay everything out on the table so you know what each finished heart will look like. I finished off all the little front pockets before I tackled assembling the hearts. This is where you'll spend a lot of your time if you're not finishing off all the front pockets the same.
* Next, decorate the pocket any way you’d like. I used leftover scraps of lace, ribbon, buttons, sequins, rick-rack, etc. On some I made tiny pockets from denim or felt. Add bows, buttons, etc. If you want a Velcro closing, add that now to the pocket and the front of the heart.
* To
assemble: Place the back of the heart with the wrong side facing up on the table; place
the batting on top; place the top of the heart on top of the batting; and last,
place the pocket on top of everything. You get the idea, everything is stacked and looks like the way it will be when it's sewn together. The is NO turning things inside out. If you need to pin everything together
in a few places go ahead. This is a rag heart, so don’t over stress if things
aren’t perfectly aligned. (If you want a loop for
hanging the heart, add it now using ribbon or a sewn length of fabric.) Play with the decorative pocket and have fun adding your own touches!
* Sew around the edge about ½ - ¾ inches from the outside. I started at the top of the V in the heart. When I reached the V again, I set my needle ¼ inch inside the first stitching line and stitched around again using my foot as the distance guide. The inside stitching should catch the batting if the outer stitching didn’t. Don’t fret if the batting isn’t caught all the way around. (In the above photo you only see the the inside stitching line around the top, but see both stitching lines along the side below the pocket.)
Now
that you have a cute little heart with a pocket for holding treats, you might think
you’re finished. But this is a rag heart, so let’s continue on:
* Clip
the outside edges toward the stitching line. I spaced my snips ¼ inch or less
apart. A couple of my snips on one of the hearts cut through the outer stitching, but that’s just fine. There’s a
second row of stitching that defines the heart shape—and this is a rag heart!
* Toss
the finished hearts into the washer and dryer with a similar colored load of
clothes. The edges will fray a little and give the heart a soft, well-loved rag
look.
* Add
additional trim if desired. (Below, the ribbon bow was added to a belt loop on the pocket after washing.)
* Add the final finishing touch by stuffing with goodies and adding a tag. Wow! You’re
ready to give a sweet little surprise to someone special.
It was cute watching my little Grand help choose the
way she wanted the hearts trimmed. We were limited by scraps of this and that, although it was amazing to discover we had plenty of things around—like gold sequins—which she fell in love with, that challenged my creativity for a moment before I realized there is no right or wrong. She loved tossing the
hearts into the washer as I finished snipping them. It took her forever (no
exaggeration) to write her name on each tag.
Head’s up: This took time. Yup, time, including a
trip to Wal-Mart for a little $.88 bag of buttons and a spool of polka dot ribbon ribbon. Other than that, once the hearts were all cut out, designed and laid out,
the final assembly went quickly. Um, in my opinion (I sew, and I had free time...). Suggestion: While they are washing and drying you can fix
dinner, clean the house and get the homework not only underway, but completely finished, kids bathed and ready for bed…
Hope you have a sweet Valentine’s Day!
Remember, it's not about the "valentine" or the sweet treats.
It's all about LOVE
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