DIY Lace Valentine Hearts

The other day I was feeling a bit off. I had a long list of to-do’s but didn’t feel like any of them. I found myself in my craft room, and decided there and then that the most important thing I could do right now was to organize my little Ikea Moppe mini chest of drawers. (I know! What was I thinking!)

It definitely wasn’t on my list of things to do, but it was a nice little task that totally took my mind off that long list of must-dos. And boy oh boy did that work.

You see, in that little chest of drawers, I had stuffed all my bits of lace and ribbon, and pretty little fabric scraps. And there are two drawers filled to the brim with buttons and little pretties. So I found myself sorting out all those pretty little doodads and marveling at how lovely all those colors looked together.

For the next hours, I was lost. Lost in craft heaven.

I made a whole new set of fabric lace hearts. And since they are so perfect for Valentine’s Day (or for a wedding come to think of it), I thought I’d share how I go about making these shabby chic hearts.

How to Make a Shabby Chic Fabric Heart

There are several ways to make these pretty little fabric hearts and you can either make them with or without sewing.

I find it easiest and fastest to use my sewing machine for all the basic work, and use hand stitching for the details. But if sewing is not your thing, you could totally make these with fabric glue or a hot glue gun too.

I love making little projects like these fabric hearts because I get to use up all sorts of leftover bits of fabric, ribbon, lace, buttons, beads, and pearls.

So let’s get to making them.

Materials You’ll Need for Making Valentine’s Hearts

Basic materials

• You’ll need a template of a heart shape. I printed mine on regular paper and then cut my heart pattern out of some cardstock.

• Basic, neutral fabric to make the hearts. It’s okay if your fabric has a little pattern, as long as it isn’t too overpowering. You can use bits of drop cloth, linen, or cotton, any fabric will do actually. This is a perfect project to use up any old or even stained fabric scraps you have.

• Something to fill the hearts. This can be fiberfill, lavender, potpourri, or even old pillow stuffing.

• Sewing supplies like a sewing machine, needles, thread, and scissors.

• Your stash of pretty ribbons, lace, buttons, scraps of fabric, and so on. You won’t need much of it for a single heart but it is nice to have a nice assortment to choose from so you can let your imagination and creativity go free.

Preparing your fabric hearts

With your heart-shaped pattern cut out twice as many hearts as you want to make.

You can now choose two ways of going forward for creating this lace hearts.

The first way of making these lace decorated hearts is making the basic fabric heart first and then decorating it.
This way you sew a basic heart by stitching two layers together, turning the heart, filling it with your filler material, and closing it. And then glue or stitch the embellishments to the heart

The second way is to first sew, stitch or glue all or most of your lace trims and other decorations to one piece of heart-shaped fabric and then sew the heart together. This is faster as you can use your sewing machine to piece together all the trims. But it is also a bit more complicated to get your heart right.

Don’t forget to add a loop if you want to make hanging hearts.

Or the third way (what I did) is to combine the two methods.

Machine sewing tips when making hearts

Sewing a heart can be a bit difficult because of the strong curves.

If you use these two tips, you’ll find making your hearts nice and round much easier.

1. Use a very small stitch and sew slowly. Usually changing your stitch length and going slow, is enough to be able to follow all the curves of the heart. If you still tend to get off the pattern refer to tip 2.
2. A heart has two sharp points, the bottom tip and the point where the two ‘cheeks’ of the heart meet. To sew those you want, stop at the point’s edge, leave the needle in the fabric, lift up the pressure foot, and turn your fabric. That way you will make a nice sharp corner. This trick also works for extreme curves. Go slow and when you feel you are not turning fast enough, stop, put the needle in the fabric, lift the foot, and readjust the fabric.

Voila! This way every heart will come out perfect.

Embellishing your Shabby Chic Hearts

With the basic work done, the fun part can begin. Simply start playing with your bits of lace, and buttons, with bits and pieces of pretty fabric, with doilies and ribbons, and with beads and pearls. Give different combinations a try-out, and rearrange them in every direction. Layer your piece of lace fabric with ribbon and use a line of glue or a quick sewing stitch to put them in place.

I tend to follow very few rules when doing this. I just look for variation in shape and shade and make sure that the subtle differences don’t clash but complement each other.

While I am working on one heart I always come up with an idea that doesn’t quite work out in the design I have underhand. So I apply it to the next one, and the next one. And that is why I can never make just one heart but end up with a whole collection of little embellished hearts.

Decorating with Fabric Lace Hearts

These little homemade hearts are so easy to use in your valentine’s decorations. You can turn them into a hanger to use as a key tassel, make extra small hearts and use them as Christmas ornaments (I love heart-shaped Christmas ornaments!). Place a whole collection in a bowl or basket and use them as a quick and easy centerpiece.

I had a ton of fun making these romantic lace hearts. And they make great little gifts to add to a package. When you fill them with lavender these hearts become the prettiest little sachets for keeping lines smelling fresh for ages.

More Valentine’s Craft Ideas

I think any day is a good day for crafting a little heart. But there is never a better day for a little love filled craft then when Valentine’s Day is around the corner.

So if I have got you in the mood for some romantic crafting than I have some more ideas for you.

I had great fun repurposing old wine corks into decorative hearts. I even came up with four different designs.

Aren’t these DIY wine cork hearts cute?!

My blogging friends from the SUSTAINABLE CRAFT CHALLENGE GROUP have all come up with love filled craft projects, using reused and repurposed materials.

And if you’d like to see even more Valentine’s Day crafts, here are a couple of other projects my blog friends have made:

Kate from Southern Home and Hospitality shares her sweet Heart Shaped Topiary

Suzy from Worthing Court created this lovely Valentine’s Day Printable

I hope you enjoyed my little shabby chic hearts tutorial. Trust me when I say that these DIY Valentine’s Day hearts are easy and so fun to make!

And from my heart to your heart. Happy Valentine’s Day!