Last minute felt Valentine's pins

Somehow Valentine's crept up on me like a small creeping thing and it pounced me when I wasn't expecting it. I decided I would make something for Hazel and her two best friends Alex and Suzie, and maybe something for Hazel on the day - she's certainly expecting it! I love these little wrapped matchboxes over at Inchmark, so maybe one of those.

Last year I made a bunch of felt heart-shaped 'cookies' and I really enjoyed the process so I went with something similar, but did them as pins instead. It was really simple and I made the lot while watching the new Flash Forward and Lost last night.

I started by cutting out a large heart (6cm at widest point) from red felt for the back, and for the front one large heart from dark pink and one smaller heart from the lighter pink. I sewed the lighter pink onto the darker pink heart with a running stitch in a silky embroidery floss, and then embroidered the initial on using red floss and stem stitch. I just drew the initial on with water-soluble pen the best I could. Then I cut out a tiny little red heart and attached it to the edge of the light pink with a single red bead in the middle. I think cutting out that darned heart was the hardest part!

Then I sewed the pin thingy on the back of the red felt, with a scrap of felt on the other side to provide a bit more stability. I initially sewed it on more in the middle, but discovered that the heart flopped downwards when worn, so I moved it up as far as I could and now it sits nicely.

The last step was to sew both sides together with a simple running stitch and push in a little fibrefill to give it some shape. A Valentine's heart should be a bit squishy right? :) I did the running stitch in a similar dark pink to the felt so that it didn't stand out and make the heart too fussy.

So that was easy-peasy lemon-squeezy and I love how they turned out. Hazel loves hers, and so does Alex so they're obviously a successful 4-5 year old gift. Since I like them too they'd probably be good for adults too. Maybe just the ladies though, can't quite see my husband sporting one at work somehow...