Hearts a Flutter: Fast and Easy DIY Valentines Day Garland Tutorial

Need a last-minute Valentine’s Day project? Work through your basket of scraps, sewing this pretty heart garland pattern.

Make hearts a flutter all over your house with this adorable Valentine’s Garland designed by Virginia of Gingercake!

My LOVE of scrap fabrics keeps me sewing new and fun things in spite of the scraps attempting to take over my sewing space!  Keeping up with my mission to tackle these scraps, I came up with this cute method of make a quick and easy reversible hearts garland.  If you do not have the mountain of scraps that I have, a charm pack (package of 5’’ x 5’’ of quilting cotton squares) will work perfectly!

There are lots of things I love about this garland besides displaying some of those precious favorite scrap fabrics.  First, it is reversible so it would look really cute hanging around a doorway or window frame too- not just against a wall!  Also, using the pinking shears to finish the edges means you don’t have to turn these little hearts inside out and press.  That can be time consuming and tedious!  Last, this method of stringing the hearts means there is no stitch line though the middle of the fabric and the look is much cleaner.  YAY!

Let’s begin by gathering materials!

Click here to download the heart template.

You will need:

• 20 5’’ x 5’’ squares of red print quilting cotton fabrics

• 10 5’’ x 5’’ squares flannel or stabilizer (I use Pellon Midweight Stabilizer 40)

• Yarn or string – about 6’

• Wide eyed needle (depends on the width of the yarn/ string you use)

• Sewing Machine, coordinating thread, scissors

• Pinking shears

• Ironing board and iron

1.  Cut out all the hearts.  For the garland that I made,  I cut 20 hearts from fabric and 10 hearts from flannel (or stabilizer).

2.  Assemble layers by laying 1 heart wrong side up, then flannel/ stabilizer layer, and then another heart right side up.  See photo above.

3.  Assemble all the hearts (a total of 10) before sewing them together.  Pay attention to how they look as a whole- is there a good mix of colors?  Are there too many of one fabric style?  A good mix can make your garland look mcuh better!

4.  Clip (or pin) the layers together where the top curve of the heart straightens on the side.  Repeat on the other side.  See the photo below.  These pins indicate where you will leave a gap in your sewing to make space for the garland string.

5.  Now at the sewing machine start above one of the clipped (pinned)  sides and sew around the heart with a 3/8’’ seam allowance.  At the other side, stop, backstich and leave a 1/4’’ -1/2’’ opening, and then sew around back to where you started but stop 1/4’’- 1/2’’ before that beginning stitch.  You should have 2 breaks in the stitching on either side of the hear.  See the photo above.

6.  Clip threads and use your pinking shears to trim around the heart.

7.  Repeat with the 9 other hearts.

8.  Now you will have 10 hearts.  Before stringing them together,  arrange the heart in the order you want for the garland.  Again, pay attention to mixing of fabrics so you get a well balanced look.  See photo above.

9.  Thread the yarn/ string through the needle.  Then insert the needle into  the side opening of the first heart in your stack.  See photo above.

Push the needle through to the other side by squiching the heart with your fingers to push the needle through gently and out through the opening on the other side.

10.  Continue stringing hearts until you have done all ten.

11.  Tie loops at the ends and you are ready to hang!

TIPS: No need to limit yourself to 10 hearts!  Make garland as long (or as short) as you would like.

Experiment with sizes – how cute would your Valentine’s Day Garland look with alternated smaller and larger hearts??? This would look great all in solids in a variety of shades of pink and red too.

Pattern Designer and sewer Virginia Lindsay is the creator of Gingercake Patterns and the author of the blog Gingercake.  She is the author of 3 books- Sewing to Sell: The Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Craft Business, More Sewing to Sell: Take Your Handmade Business to the next level, and Pretty Birds:  18 projects to Sew and Love.  Virginia also has had several of her patterns published by Simplicity.  She loves to create fun, unique and useful projects that make sewing time an enjoyable and treasured experience.  Her most popular sewing patterns include whimsical pillows, notebook covers, lunch bags and crayon holders.

Virginia lives in Freeport, PA with her husband Travis and 4 children who inspire her everyday.  She also loves to garden, decorate and take her overly zealous labrador, Woody on long walks.

Find Virginia on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram too!