Thursday, December 10, 2009

Love letters tutorial

Now for two projects with a little love. Lately it has been so cold, and last night, after a few chilly recesses, my daughter asked for a pocket tissue pack for school. I know these projects have been around a while, and are not at all original, but they are still cute and fun to make with felt.
And this little loving reminder or early Valentine's Day treat, was just as easy to stitch up alongside the tissue holder.
So for the two you need: Felt, embroidery floss, scissors, pins, a needle, pencil, tissue pack, and a snap clip.
Cut a rectangle big enough to fit around your tissues, mine was about 5 1/2" x 6 1/2".
Using your pencil and a light hand (you can't erase it), write your message. I wrote "I love you", but a name or "feel better" would be cute too. Make sure that your message will match up when you wrap it around the tissues. If you make a mistake flip your rectangle over and try again.
Now start embroidering. I used three strands of floss for both projects. (Embroidery floss is six stranded, so separate it to just use three.) This isn't perfection, its heartfelt, so don't worry too much about the evenness of your stitch length, I used a backstitch. Come up a stitch over and then...
back and down at the beginning of previous stitch.
Once your embroidery is done, fold each side to the middle and pin in place.
Blanket stitch each edge closed. Go from front to back making sure to catch thread in stitch.
Slide tissues into pocket and you're done.
Now, for the snap clip, place the clip on felt and cut a rectangle larger than the clip. Make it bigger than you think so that you can trim it down. Cut a second identical rectangle.
Lightly write your word on the felt. A small word is best, something like "JOY" or a child's name wold be great as well.
Backstitch your letters.
On second rectangle, cut a small slit just big enough for the smaller end of the clip to slide through.
Pin your embroidered rectangle in place.
The back should look like this, with the smaller side of the clip exposed.
Now, do a running stitch around the edge, a little further in so you can clean up the edges of the rectangles.
Trim around the rectangle with scissors to even up the edges and clip in hair.
And there you have it, two love letters for sending them out on chilly days.

4 comments:

Sew Much Ado said...

I like the tissue holder! That's funny, I was thinking it WAS original, I've never seen one like that before. And I love that it's so simple to make.

Material Girls said...

Somer,
You are awesome!!! Thanks so much!
Nadine

Anonymous said...

hello, I'm partecipamdo the giveaway on SS.
I too have done this port handkerchiefs felt.
hugs

Fawnda@Fireflies and Jellybeans said...

I have to say that is is one of the cutest things that I have ever seen! I love it!