How to make a felt heart with scraps of fabric and lace. Turn them into little felt heart brooches or key rings.

With just small pieces of felt, and a few other scraps of fabric, lace and ribbon you can make beautiful felt hearts to create patches, brooches, keyrings or bag charms.

Scrappy Felt Heart Keyring and Brooch Tutorial

What kind of heart you can make will depend on what you have in your craft stash.

To make something similar to the ones you can see here you need:

• Felt

• Little bits of ribbon, lace or fabric

• Buttons, charms, bits of old jewellery etc

• Embroidery thread

Plus for the brooch version - 

• Some sort of iron on interfacing or bond-a-web

• A brooch back or safety pin

and for the Keyring version -

• A little bit of wadding

• An extra length of ribbon (approx 6” or 15cm)

• A split ring (or other keyring thing of your choice)

Start by making a heart template

How to make a heart template

• Fold a scrap of paper in half

• draw a curved half heart shape (a bit like an ear) making sure the fold of the paper is on the undrawn side

• cut out and then unfold your heart template

My heart shapes are about 3" tall and 2.5" at the widest point (8cm x 6cm)

Embellishing a felt heart

First cut out 2 hearts from the felt using your template.

Play about with your scraps of lace, ribbon, fabric etc on one felt heart until you have an arrangement you like. Layer them up, try a few different options, you’ll know when you are happy with your felt heart.

Using 2 strands of embroidery thread and some simple stitches sew the bits and pieces you’ve chosen in place. You can use any stitch that you like for this. In the photos here you can see I used a simple oversew stitch and a running stitch, you can find lots of other easy embroidery stitch ideas here.

How to turn your embellished felt heart into a brooch

For the brooches cut a heart from Bond-a-web or iron on interfacing using your template.

Turned the embellished felt heart face down, tuck the ribbon ends in then place the bond-a-web/interfacing on top. Now finish by placing the second felt heart on top.

Sadly I missed photographing this stage but basically you are making a bond-a-web or interfacing sandwich with the ribbon and lace ends tucked in.

Following the instructions on your bond-a-web or interfacing iron your heart to seal it all together.

Ironing felt is horrible, it goes all floppy and a bit fluffy. Don't panic, just let it cool then trim any untoward bits. As it cools it should have a bit more body to it. If you want a really firm brooch just use a thicker interfacing.

It should look something like this. That lovely silver coloured charm was from an old broken necklace, I've been looking for something to use it on for ages.

Using a blanket stitch sew all round the edge of the heart, again with 2 strands of embroidery thread.

Finish your felt heart brooch by stitching a safety pin or brooch back on the back.

How to turn your embellished felt heart into a Keyring

To make the keyring start in exactly the same, arranging an assortment of bits and pieces onto the felt heart.

I was lucky to find a little cross stitch heart in my sewing box, I must have made it ages ago as I don't even remember! It came in just right for this keyring.

Stitch everything in place onto one of your felt hearts as before. To make a keyring however we are going to miss the bond-a-web/interfacing stage.

Instead place the 2 felts hearts together and stitch them together using blanket stitch. Each time you get to a lace or ribbon end just tuck them in as you sew around.

Stop when you get close to the top middle.

Fold your long length of ribbon (approx 6” or 15cm) in half and thread it through the split ring. Then open up the felt layers and pop the ribbon in place.

Now carry on with your blanket stitch, making sure you watch the back and catch all those layers securely with your stitches.

Once you are about an inch from the beginning of your stitching stop again and pop a little wadding inside to lightly pad the heart, then carry on with your stitches to seal it all up completely.

Ideas for your embellished felt hearts

Make a pretty felt heart for someone you love or make one for yourself, or why not make loads and give them to all your friends! As well as a perfect Valentine or Galentine gift they would also be lovely for Mothers Day, birthdays or just so someone knows you are thinking of them.

These pretty felt hearts only use a very small piece of felt and are a wonderful way to use small scraps of haberdashery and little bits and pieces from your craft stash. I love making little projects like this to use things in my stash, those bits I keep because I know they will come in handy one day. Have fun!

You might like to check out this Pocket Hug making idea too

Do you have any scraps of felt that would make a pretty heart for someone special?

Julie

I'll be linking up at these link parties