heart pockets

So I know Valentines Day is over, but I wanted to share a little diy with you!  I made these little heart pockets for the boys and also to include with the valentines we sent to friends and family this year.  I love how they came out!  I think you could use them for other occasions too; hopefully they’ll inspire you to share some love!

So here they are ~ heart pockets 🙂  Super simple to make, totally reusable, and done on the cheap (this is my kind of project!)  All you need is sheets of felt in the color(s) of your choice, card stock (I used an index card), scissors, thread, and a sewing machine (or needle if you’d rather hand sew them).  Other than that, you’ll just need whatever you want to fill them with.  We used some festive candy and little messages written on strips of paper 🙂

Alrighty, first make your template.  I wanted mine big enough to put sweet treats in, but not too big. Our hearts are about the size of my palm.  I had a heart shaped cookie cutter on hand, so I just used that.  Cut one whole heart, one bottom piece that goes up a little past the middle of the shape, and one top piece that goes down a little past the middle of the shape.  The two partial pieces need to overlap to form the pocket once it’s sewn together.

Next, trace your template onto the sheets of felt.  I was able to fit pieces for 5 hearts on each sheet.  I love that felt is cheap, colorful, and doesn’t fray 🙂

Okay, you guessed it – cut out all the pieces!  Try to keep them organized by color and piece; it’ll make it easier when you’re sewing a million of them later!

Here’s the Man sewing up a storm 🙂  I promise I sewed some too; it was just easier to take a picture of him 🙂  Also, Branden is much better at sewing than I am.  He used to work in upholstery and now uses sewing when he makes puppets (and for many of my projects 🙂

Here are the hearts all sewn up!  First I sewed a line of stitching along the bottom of the partial top heart piece (just because I liked how it looked).  Then, I layered all the pieces together and sewed around the heart shape!  Easy peesy 🙂

Now for the fun part!  Stuff your heart pockets with a few sweet treats.  I had the boys help with the ones we gave away.  They were willing to do the work, but I had to pay them in candy 🙂

In addition to candy, we also put little messages in the hearts!  You can write whatever you’d like, but ours said things like, “You’re so cool!  Give 5 hugs today!” and “You’re awesome! Call someone and tell them why you love them!”

Here are our hearts – stuffed and ready to send out!

Then we packaged them up with our valentines and sent them on their way!