Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and there are plenty of ways to celebrate this day of love on a budget. If you're looking for an adorable way to tell your sweetheart you love them, my felt love letter tutorial paired with conversation hearts, has got you covered!
Create your own heart-felt project by following my step-by-step instructions below. Now select your materials, download the free project template, and let's get started!
Supplies:
- Acrylic Craft Felt in colours of your choosing; I used the following:
- Ivory
- Pink
- Powder Blue
- Violet, Apricot
- Shocking Pink
- Red
- Sewing thread in colours corresponding with the felt colours you've selected
- Sewing needles
- White iron-on vinyl (optional)
This option is only if you plan on not stitching your own conversation heart letters - A marking tool; I love working with disappearing ink markers
- Fabric glue; my favourite type to work with is Aleene's Fabric Fusion
- Fabric scissors
- Template (shown below)
Note:A Cricut machine, and other additional CNC cutting devices, are not required, but always helpful.
Template
Before You Begin
This particular project was designed with a Cricut Maker machine in mind, as I will be using iron-on vinyl to create the lettering for the envelope and conversation hearts. You can also stitch them manually; it's your choice entirely. A Cricut machine is not required.
Instructions
- Download your template and cut out out your felt shapes.
- Method One: Use a Cricut Maker to cut out your pieces for you. This is the method that I will be using.
- Method Two: Print the template, cut out your stencils and trace with a disappearing ink tool. Once all your shapes are traced out on to your selected felt pieces, cut them out you using fabric scissors.
- Method Three: Print the template on to freezer paper. Iron it to your selected felt material, and cut out each piece. Remove the freezer paper once your piece has been cut.
- Stamp: Start by taking the lower part of the stamp (E) and aligning it to the top right corner of the envelopes front side (A). Stitch both pieces together using a running stitch.
Note: You can find simple tutorials on YouTube for all of the stitches mentioned in this tutorial. - Centre the main stamps square piece (F) to the top of the stamps bottom piece (E), and sew those together using a running stitch.
- Now sew on one of the smaller heart shapes (J) to the envelopes stamp (F) that you just completed; and - you got it - use a running stitch to fix it in place. Your love letter stamp is finished!
- Envelope: Now we will be adding the three hearts to the bottom left-hand corner of the envelope. The felt pieces required are the two smaller hearts (L) and one from the next size up (K). Attach these three hearts to the front of the envelope using a running stitch.
Note: Feel free to arrange the hearts as you wish; I decided to do the largest heart in the middle with the two smaller hearts on each side. - Next, for the address sections on the envelope, use your [disappearing ink] marking tool and a straight edge (ruler or book) to draw a set of lines in the top left and bottom right corner of the face of your envelope. Be sure that these lines are equal in length and spaced evenly apart.
- Using a darker shade of thread (grey or black) stitch over the lines using a back stitch. Repeat this process until you have the return address and the addressee lines complete.
- Finally, we will add the hearts that will contain the recipient's name, or nickname of your choosing; which will be placed in the centre of the envelope.
Note: If you are stitching your words by hand, do so now on heart shape G, using a back stitch or another stitch of your choosing. It's recommended that you use your disappearing ink tool to write everything out first. - Using a running stitch, sew on the larger felt heart (H) to the centre of the envelope.
- Take the heart that [will] contain the recipients name (G), and sew it to the middle of the larger heart (H) that you have just sewn on. Once again, attach using a running stitch. Now is the time to stitch your envelope together.
Reminder: The vinyl letters will be ironed on to your project pieces at the end. - Line up the second envelope piece (A), and sew it on to the back of the one you've been working with. This will serve to cover up all of the stitching that's exposed on the backside of the envelope.
- In the following order, on the back side of the envelope
- Place the two side pieces (D) on opposite ends of the envelope, with the points facing inward.
- Place the bottom piece of the envelope, that has one of the triangle points as a straight edge (B), on top of the two side pieces you just put down in the previous step. Be sure the long edge is flush with the bottom of the envelope (A).
Note: If you fee confused at any step in the process, you can always refer to the template which labels each piece and the process photos. - Using a blanket stitch, attach each side piece (D) and the bottom piece (B) to the backside of the envelope piece (A). Both pieces will already be sewn together, so it's simply a matter of continuing your blanket stitch around the edge of the envelope until you reach the top of the other side.
- At this point, you will add piece C (which makes up the flap that covers the opening of the envelope). Simply place it on top so that it is flush with the top of the envelope (pointed side down) and continue your blanket stitch around the top. Tie off at the end.
- Using a small amount of fabric glue and a piece K, glue a heart to the middle of the back of the envelope (right above the point on piece C).
- At this stage in the process, your envelope should be finished and ready to be filled with conversation hearts. The number of hearts you choose to put in your envelope is entirely up to you. I chose to do 10 (two of each colour). Because I am using a Cricut Machine and iron-on vinyl for my conversation hearts, I don't need to add any stitching before sewing these together. However, if you are stitching on your letters, you would want to do that before sewing each piece together (again, using your disappearing ink tool and a back-stitch).
- Time to stitch your conversation hearts together. Using thread of a similar colour to each heart, simply attach two pieces together using a blanket stitch. You don't need to leave a space for filling unless you would like to make them plush. I chose not to make them plush (i.e. kept them flat) because I didn't feel that they would fit as nicely into the envelope, but it's entirely up to you. If you do decide to make them plush, you will need fibre fill stuffing for this part.
- Once everything is stitched together, it's time to iron your vinyl to the conversation hearts and to the front of the envelope (on the layered heart in the middle). When choosing a font, be sure that it's something that will be relatively easy to weed. I suggest adding your words to the top of the template in Design Space (on piece I and piece G) to make sure they will fit the felt pieces before cutting. Iron-on vinyl isn't cheap after all, so it's always best to measure twice and cut once, as they say! I also recommend short sayings (i.e. LOVE YOU, KISS ME, etc.). Remember to mirror your image before cutting and to place your iron-on vinyl 'shiny side down' on your cutting mat. Cut, weed and iron on!
- At this point, all of your pieces should be assembled. All you have to do, now, is put your conversation hearts inside your envelope and gift your completed love letter to its recipient!
Did you make this sweet little love day project? If so, be sure to snap a photo, upload it to Instagram and tag @the.felted.fawn and @the_felt_store so we can see your creation!
