Tutorial: Heart Pouch

I've been tasked with coming up with another take-home craft for Tyson's upcoming preschool Valentine's Day party. I had fun creating the reindeer necklaces for his Christmas party, and this time I came up with these simple heart pouches using each child's first initial and favorite color (obtained from his class book that we were able to borrow this past weekend).

These are very simple to make, and I thought I would share a brief tutorial here. If you don't sew, no worries! You can easily use a hot glue gun to assemble the pouches.

HEART POUCH

Supplies needed for 1 pouch:

• Red, pink, and/or white felt scraps (or make them colorful like I did!)
• 6 1/2 in. red or pink cording
• White peel & stick felt letter (purchased from JoAnn Fabrics)
• Polyester fiberfill
• Hot glue gun
• Pinking shears (optional)
• Sewing machine & supplies (optional)
• Large & small heart patterns

Instructions:

Create your own heart patterns by folding a piece of paper in half and freehanding one half of a heart. Unfold and adjust to your liking. Create a smaller version of the heart using the same procedure.

For reference, here are the measurements of my (unfolded) patterns:

• Large heart: 5 1/4 x 4 in.
• Small heart: 3 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.

Fold each pattern in half and lay on a folded piece of felt. Using your pinking shears (or regular scissors), cut out one small heart and two large hearts.

Adhere your sticky felt letter to the center of the small heart. I secured mine later with hot glue, but now would be a better time to do that.

Be glad you aren't making 19 of these like I was!

Using a stitch length of 3, begin sewing (or hot gluing) the small heart onto one of the large hearts. Start at the bottom point, backtack a few stitches, and then continue on until you get about three-quarters of the way around the heart.

Pause here, lifting your presser foot with your needle down

Take a small amount of fiberfill and use one finger to stuff it evenly under the small heart, creating a puffed effect.

Finish securing the small heart and backtack again when you reach the bottom point.

Now take your other large heart and place it underneath the top piece you already sewed.

To create the pouch's handle, sandwich about 1/2 in. of one end of the cording between the two large hearts, starting at the top right curve. Begin stitching here, backtacking to secure the cording in place. As you sew around the heart, pause when you reach the top left curve and sandwich the other end of the cording in place.

Backtack and finish your stitching right after you pass over the cording, leaving the middle section of the pouch open for goodies!

To make your pouch more durable, place a small drop of hot glue right where both ends of cording meet the felt. And that's it!

Fill with treats and pass out to some happy kiddos!

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!