Fabric Scrap DIY Heart Valentines
I’m having fun dreaming up projects to utilize scraps lately. I like the unexpected results it can bring, and lord knows I have enough fabric. Although this DIY fabric scrap project is just in time for Valentine’s Day, the basic method to make these hearts, which is called foundation piecing, can be used for all kinds of patchwork projects.
If you haven’t heard of foundation piecing, it’s a great method for creating a stable fabric out of lots of little pieced scraps. Using a base fabric, such as quilter’s muslin (or an old sheet or pillowcase cut to size), the fabric strips will be stitched on to it. When all the strips are sewn on, the new “fabric” is trimmed to size accordingly. Here’s how to make these hearts.
Fabric Scrap DIY Heart Valentines
Materials:
Scrap piece of muslin roughly 6″-7″ square (exact measurements are not necessary here)
Fabric scraps. (Small strips work, if they are too short to fit across the muslin, piece them together end to end in a longer strip before adding to the foundation square.)
Iron/Ironing board
Rotary cutter, cutting mat, and clear quilter’s ruler
Scrap of fabric for back of heart
Stuffing
Hand sewing needle
To Make:
1. Cut the base fabric into a rough square measuring about 6-7″. Gather your fabric scrap. Strips that measure the diagonal length of the square worked well in my hearts, but you can also have the strips going vertically or horizontally along the base fabric.
2. Lay your first strip face up in the center.
3. Lay the next strip on top of this one, right sides facing.
Stitch along one side of the top strip, roughly 1/4″ away from the edge.
Press open.
Continue building out the strips onto the base fabric doing this exact same thing with each strip. Face down on the one beside it, stitch a line on the outer edge with a 1/4″ seam allowance, and press open.
You can see above where I sewed shorter strips together to make a longer strip.
This is legal 😀
Trace out and cut a heart shape.
Cut out with scissors.
Trace the heart on backing fabric, cut that out.
Sew the two sides of the heart together, right sides together, leaving an opening for turning right side out and stuffing. Stuff with polyfil, and hand stitch opening closed.
I chose to string a few of mine up using perle cotton thread and some clear 6mm beads I had already. The thread is knotted on the top back of each heart.
Use this foundation piecing method to create all kinds of scrappy quilt projects that could be strip pieced.
Enjoy!