If you like to do a little sewing and have a stash of fabrics hidden away somewhere, this tutorial is perfect for you! These fabric lavender hearts make beautiful gifts, either for guests at your wedding, for friends and family who are coming to stay, or even for something special at Christmas time! Filled with fragrant lavender (plus some stuffing to make them nice and plump) they are easy to make and look absolutely lovely.
Be imaginative with your fabric, even using leftover silks or cottons from your dress or extra ribbon from your invitations. There are many different fragrances you could use too, dried herbs or eucalyptus also have a beautiful scent. You can make these as large or small as you’d like, and if you don’t have a sewing machine never fear! These are easily hand sewn too, they’ll just take a little longer to make.
What you’ll need:
- Fabric of your choice (non-stretch cottons are the easiest to work with)
- Fabric scissors
- Thread and needle
- Ribbon of your choice (around 1 cm wide works best)
- Dried lavender
- Hollowfibre stuffing
- Sewing machine
Step 1. Cut out your fabric to your desired shape. Make a template if you’re making lots of hearts, this will make cutting out much easier. I have used a plain cream cotton for the back, but you can use whatever combination of fabrics you’d like! Cut enough ribbon for each heart (approx 10cm).
Step 2. Once you’ve completed all your cutting out, begin pinning the shapes together. Lay down the back piece of fabric (right side up), and pin your ribbon loop as shown in image (two loose ends facing out of the heart).
Step 3. Place the front piece of fabric on top of the base (right side down), and use the pin as before to pin these two pieces together, with the ribbon still in between.
Step 4. Use your sewing machine (or hand stitch) around the hearts, leaving approximately 3cm between starting and finishing.
Step 5. Trim the excess fabric and turn your hearts inside out so that they’re now the right way out. If your hearts are small, use a blunt knitting needle (or something similar) to gently push out the shape.
Step 6. Once your hearts are all the right side out, begin to fill them with lavender. For my hearts, I put three teaspoons of lavender in. If you’re doing a lot of hearts you may want to use a funnel to speed things up. Once you put the lavender in, fill up the rest of the heart with hollowfibre stuffing.
Step 7. Using your needle and thread, neatly stitch up the opening to seal the stuffing and lavender inside.
These lavender hearts look beautiful on a place setting, hung as decorations or bundled up as part of a hamper. Choose beautiful ribbons and lovely fabrics, and your handmade gifts are guaranteed to be loved!
Images by Nicola Goring
Ms Chinoiserie Says: So pretty; how lovely to make these with your girlfriends at your kitchen tea; choose a fabric for each friend to make them beautifully personalised!
About Nicola Goring – I’m Nicola, the florist and crafter behind rubyandjoy. I’m a gardening, fabric loving, mint tea drinking, brownie baking, book obsessed maker! I love a good adventure having just moved back from five years in Scotland (with my lovely Scottish husband).
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