Valentine Heart Pillow Tutorial

Here is a sweet little decorative pillow tutorial perfect for Valentine’s Day. It is made with wool felt and a technique called reverse applique. Choose any color combination you like. It is simple and fun and I even think you could keep it around all year!

Supplies:

2 – 11″ x 15″ pieces of wool felt in any color you like.

1 – 7″ x 9″ piece of cotton print for the heart

1 – 7″ x 2″ strip of muslin and permanent marker (or printable cotton fabric) – optional

polyfill

thread, pins, scissors, needle, and sewing machine

***

Let’s get started.

Cut two pieces of wool felt 11″ by 15″.

Take the 7″ x 9″ piece of cotton and cut a heart shape. I folded the fabric in half and cut a half heart shape. This technique gives you a symmetrical heart shape when you unfold the fabric, but any heart shape will work. Place the right side of the heart face down on the wrong side of one of the wool felt pieces. Pin in place and sew all around the heart using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Tip: move slowly around the curves, taking a few stitches at a time and then turning and repeating.

Turn the wool felt so that the front of the pillow is facing you. You will be able to see the stitch line of the heart shape.

Now for the tricky part. You want to cut away the wool fabric inside the heart area to reveal the fabric underneath. Cut close to the stitch line leaving 1/8″ to 1/4″ of fabric next to the seam. Take your time and be careful to make sure you are only cutting the wool away without cutting the heart fabric underneath.

When you are done, you will have something that looks like the picture below. Next, if you like, add some embellishments with words printed on muslin. You can leave this part out if you like, and continue on and sew the pillow together.

If you have some computer printable fabric, you can download the words below and print them onto the fabric. Or, you can write whatever you like with permanent marker on a piece of muslin. Pin the words in place and sew around the edge of the muslin.

Click here to download.

To finish the pillow, place the right sides of the wool felt together. The words and right side of the heart will be on the inside. Start at the bottom near one of the corners and sew all they way around the pillow using a 1/2″ seam allowance and leaving a 6 inch opening on the bottom for turning and stuffing. Tip: Clip corners before turning right side out to get nice sharp corners.

Stuff pillow with polyfill. To sew the opening shut, turn in the 1/2 inch seam allowance and pin in place. With needle and thread, sew seam together using the whip stitch.

I am heading to Cleveland today to do some house hunting. I’ll be sharing some of the fun on Instagram, if you want to follow along.

Have a wonderful weekend!