Items of clothing can often come to hold special memories for us, making it difficult to part with them. In this post, we’ll make a favorite, special shirt into a treasured keepsake by turning it into a heart-shaped pillow. We will learn how to make a ruffle, use a chain stitch to embroider letters and sew a heart-shaped pillow! Supplies Coats & Clark™ Embroidery Floss Anchor® Tapestry Needle #24 Dual Duty XP® All Purpose Thread Anchor® Sparkles Embroidery Hoop & Frame Pair of scissors Heat erasable pen or chalk Ruler Pins Batting or fabric scraps Make a sewing pattern for your heart pillow 1. Draw a heart on a large piece of paper. Add a ½” (1.2 cm) seam allowance to the perimeter of your heart 2. With a ruler, draw a line down the center of the heart and fold the paper in half. Cut out the heart. This ensures your heart pillow is perfectly symmetrical. 3. Trace your pattern onto fabric and cut-out. Repeat so you have two heart-shaped pieces of fabric. Emroider a message using a chain stitch Embroidered initials or a fun message onto your pillow will make it extra special and personal. I used a chain stitch to write my message. 4. Write your message onto the right side of fabric using a heat erasable pen or chalk. 5. Secure fabric in Anchor® Sparkles Embroidery Hoop & Frame. 6. Beginning at the start of your first letter, come up through the back of your fabric. 7. Come back down through the same spot in your fabric leaving a small loop. 8. For your next stitch, come up through fabric AND the small loop. Pull to secure the chain stitch. 9. Repeat Create a ruffle 10. To make a 2” [5 cm] wide ruffle, start by measuring the perimeter of your heart pattern and doubling this measurement. The length of the ruffle (L) = perimeter of heart pattern x 2. 11. Draw a rectangle that is 5” [12.5 cm] wide by L directly onto your fabric. If you are unable to get the full length in a continuous piece, you can sew fabric strips together using a ½” [1.2 cm] seam allowance to achieve the proper length. 12. Cut out this rectangle from your fabric. 13. Fold in half with the right side facing and press. 14. Using the longest stitch on your sewing machine, stitch a straight line ¼” [0.6 cm] from the raw edge. Do not back stitch. Leave a long tail of thread. 15. Gently pull the bottom thread to gather fabric and create a ruffle. 16. Pull until the length of your ruffle measures the perimeter of heart pattern, making sure the fabric is gathered evenly. Assemble the heart-shaped pillow 17. Pin ruffle to right-side of the heart, aligning the raw edges of the ruffle to the pillow piece. 18. Sew ruffle to heart using a ½” [1.2 cm] seam allowance. Take your time with this step to make sure the ruffle is flat and even. 19. Place the second cut-out heart on top of ruffle with the wrong side of the fabric facing up, sandwiching the ruffle between the two pieces of fabric. Sew together using a ½” [1.2 cm] seam allowance. Make sure to leave a small gap approximately 3” [7.5 cm] between the start and end of your stitches so you can turn the pillow inside out. 20. Turn the pillow inside out. 21. Stuff with batting or fabric scraps. 22. Sew closed with a needle and thread, using a whipstitch. And there you have it! Have fun trying out the techniques you’ve learned here, perhaps experimenting with different shaped pillows and embroidery or embellishment styles to make favorite clothes into treasured keepsakes. Find more repurposing inspiration in our patterns below!
