January 25, 2011

Valentine Fabric Heart Topiaries

After seeing this post from Craft-O-Maniac, I decided I had to make my own and tweek it a little. Instead of stapling the fabric together, I actually handsewed (is that a word?) it, and added my own embellishments. Plus with this super fab. fabric from Michael Miller, you just can't go wrong. I made one for my new house (yay!), one for my mom and maybe one for my swap partner. (Don't want to ruin a surprise or anything.)
So here's what I did, full of details and pictures so you can make one (or two or three) sets for the ones you love.
MATERIALS:
heart template
(4) pieces of 5X6 coordinating fabric
(2) wooden dowels or meat skewers
(2) terra cotta pots
cross-stitch thread
large needle
polyester fiberfill
foil or styrofoam or newspaper to stuff pot
white paint
shredded paper
ribbon
I used this heart template from family fun (cut largest heart for template)
Start by cutting 5X6 pieces of two different fabrics (twice). Place two different (so it's reversible) fabrics with wrong sides together, pin.
Trace it in disappearing ink (love that pen- if you don't have one and you sew often, get one.)
then cut outside the line with pinking shears.
Pick your favorite coordinating color from the collection of friendship bracelet string you still have from 4th grade and thread on thick needle.
Leaving a tail at the start, sew along the (almost) disappearing (but hopefully not yet) line.
sew all the way around, leaving a 2-3 inch gap to stuff with polyester fiberfill
then continue sewing and stick a dowel or skewer in the bottom, then tie a knot around it and clip the tails.
Then paint a couple of terra cotta pots (I used both 1.5 inch and 3 inch pots and like both sizes!) white- or whatever color you want.
Wrap foil around dowel and stuff pot so it stays in the middle (styrofoam would work too, but I didn't have any, so foil it is)
Then put some paper shreds in the pot, add ribbon embellishments and/or buttons and you're done!! (Sorry about all the parenthesis, I got a little ( ) happy...)
These were so fun and easy to make! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

5 comments:

Paxton said...

love, love LOVE this post! SOOOOO cute!
And I WISH I stil had all my friendship string! ;-)

p.s. I have the cutest ever panel of valentines fabric... and NO clue what to do with it! HELP! i think it was made to be a wall hanging, but i really don't do that... but i LOVED the fabric :-P

Unknown said...

Oh' My Gosh I love them, and SO CUTE hand sewn. Well, done, great job! Thanks for the link and entering the giveaway. Best of Luck to you. jen

The Autocrat: Haley said...

Totally stinkin' cute! Great job!

Malinda Q said...

These are SO cute!!! I've been wanting to make a Valentines topiary, but hadn't decided what to do. I'm totally going to try these! Love them!!!

Anonymous said...

LOVE these and what great fabric choices you made! My cuties and I will have to do this project together this week. Thanks for the tutorial!