Sew Your Heart Out - 10 Ways to Show How Much You Care

Table of Contents

Sew Your Heart Sachet Out

I thought I knew what I was going to do in February. I had a long list of things all organised – and then – I saw a pattern for an “In the Hoop” Embroidered Heart Sachet and all my plans went right out of the window.

I love in the hoop designs. They are precise and pretty well foolproof. When you want to sew your heart out – you really can’t beat them.

I found the pattern for my embroidered heart sachet on The Kreative Kiwi – a New Zealand website which offers some really inspiring embroidery projects and a large selection of embroidery files that are completely free to download too. She has some really lovely “In the Hoop” Projects available. I have also purchased a lovely quilted notebook cover pattern and will share how the project sews out with you – when I get around to making it. For now though, I am sewing my heart out.

Discover 10 Ways to Show How Much You Care ...

There are a number of things I love about this pattern:

It was made available for free.
It is “in the hoop” – so neat and precise and able to be reliably reproduced with a high quality finish several times over.
It is great for using up small scraps of material – Heart UpCycling!
It is just so versatile. Adding a pocket on the back means you can use it as a gift bag, a card, a jewellery pouch, a pincushion, a lavender bag, a keepsake pouch etc.

Read on to see how the heart sachet is sewn out and discover 10 ways of using this wonderfully versatile pattern.

Below is a selection of some of the heart sachets I made with this pattern.

What you Will Need

First of all – download your pattern from the Kreative Kiwi website. Have a look at some of her other great designs while you are there.

To make a heart sachet, you will need a sewing machine capable of doing Machine Embroidery. I use a Bernina 590.

You will also need:

Cotton Batting - 6" x 6"
3 pieces of fabric for lining and pocket - each 6" x 9"
3 scraps of material for the front of the sachet - 6" x 6" makes life easiy, but you can manage with smaller pieces
9" piece of ribbon (optional)
Repositionable Fabric Glue (Optional)
Embroidery Thread - I used Brotherhead
Sewing Thread - I used Moon thread
Fraycheck - to seal the ends of your ribbon (optional)
Haemostats - for turning the heart inside out (optional - but great!)
Tear Away Embroidery Stabiliser

Bernina Embroidery Software Version 8

You could use the pattern exactly as it is made available, but this will give you raw edges on the inside, which I didn’t want on my heart sachet. I used Bernina Embroidery Software to edit the free pattern to achieve the results you see pictured above.

The alterations I made to the original pattern were:

I added a lining, so the raw edges are completely concealed inside the pocket.
I took some stitches out of the final heart sachet stitch design to leave a gap for the final turning out.
I substituted the initial that comes with the pattern for a variety of different designs and messages – this lovely pattern is just so versatile!

Step-by-Step Guide

Time needed: 1 hour

Hoop tear away stabiliser in a hoop large enough to stitch out the design in one go.
Sew out a batting positioning line.
Place your wadding over the design and sew the batting into place.
Trim away the excess batting close to the stitch line.
Place the first fabric for the top of the heart sachet over the stitch line – RIGHT SIDE UP!
Place the second fabric for the LHS of the heart sachet over the first with WRONG SIDE UP!
Flip the second fabric back along the stitch line and stitch out the top half of the heart.
Trim the seam allowances to 1/4 inch.
Place the third fabric for the bottom of the heart, lining up raw edges with the placement line and with the WRONG SIDE UP.
Sew the third fabric in place & trim the seam to 1/4 inch.
Flip the third fabric back along the stitch line and sew out the final heart shape.
Change to embroidery thread.
Sew out the quilting text/image and decorative stitches.
If desired – add the ribbon loop at this stage. Fold the ribbon in half and have the raw edge extending above the stitch line and the fold pointing down inside your hear. Allow enough ribbon to ensure a good secure seam. Tape it in place temporarily to stop it moving and getting sewn on “skew-if.”
Fold the two pocket pieces in half with RIGHT SIDES UP.
Place the bottom half of the pocket over your design first with the FOLD AT THE TOP.
Place the top half of the pocket over that, overlapping by about 1 inch and with the FOLD ON THE BOTTOM.
If this looks odd to you – remember that it will come out the other way around when you turn your heart sachet inside out, so your pocket will be ready to have a gift card inserted into it.
Hand tack the pocket in place to make sure it stays nice and straight when you sew around it and place the lining over the top.
Change back to ordinary sewing thread now that your embroidery is all finished. “Waste not, Want not!”
Sew all around the heart to secure your pocket in place.
Place your lining fabric over the whole design with the WRONG SIDE UP.
Make sure that your design is completely covered so you don’t end up with a hole anywhere.
Sew out the final stitch line, leaving a gap to turn the heart out through.
Trim close to the stitch line and clip all the curves.
Press.
Turn the heart sachet out through the gap in the stitching.
Press again.
Turn the heart sachet inside out again through the pocket.
Make the final turn out through the bottom half of the pocket to reveal your finished design.
Press for the last time.
“Ta Dah!” Time to stand back and admire your work.
Finish with a co-ordinating ribbon bow.

Tips and Tricks

I always like to include a Tips and Tricks section in my posts. Learning from our mistakes and passing on that wisdom is what life experience is all about. It is good to share!

I made a few mistakes with this project at the beginning … read on and save yourself some frustration.

I made a paper pattern template to help me place the fabrics sympathetically. There is nothing worse than seeing a sewing project that bisects a fabric design untidily or doesn’t line up. You might need to allow a bit of extra fabric to do this well. The two chirpy robins on my Merry Christmas heart were a good example of the importance of this tip.
You do need to trim very close to the stitch line – as close as you dare without cutting into the stitch line – and clip the curves all the way around and particularly at the two pointed bits of the heart. Otherwise, it won’t turn out neatly.
Using a mini iron to press the fabric after each stitch line is sewn – while it is in the hoop – is a good way of making sure it stays neat and flat.
However careful you are, your stabiliser can sometimes tear and leave a hole. I use fusible stabiliser on the back of the hoop to make a repair – a bit like a sticking plaster – so I don’t waste stabiliser. I keep a bag of small pieces of fusible stabilise just for this sort of remedial repair work.
Use a bow maker tool to make your finishing touch bow look really neat and seal the ends with fray check. For a good video of how to use a bow maker tool to make the perfect ribbon bow, follow this link.

We All Make Mistakes!

it is learninging from them that matters ...

The first heart sachet I made, I had the pockets with right sides on the inside instead of on the outside and ended up with a stabiliser pocket on the back instead of fabric. You really need to think back to front for this project!

The second heart, I embroidered in a lovely red thread – that got completely lost in the red linen fabric and was barely readable. I need more contrast.

The third heart sachet I sewed out, I added three dots after “I love you because”. It didn’t work well. Dots are hard to sew for a start – they have loose threads and jump stitches between them that are hard to remove neatly. Also, the text was too long – the dots almost got lost inside the seam.

Fourth time lucky – then ,,, I was away!

No-one wants a heart made out of stabiliser – do they? Well actually, I kept it, because it is quite useful for piecing fabric together when making these sachets – you can see exactly where the decorative stitches will run.

The other two “blooper” hearts made their way to my local St. Mary’s Hospice charity shop and raised £10. Not bad for “mistakes”?!

It's all about the Finishing Touches ...

For the hearts on my Etsy shop, I decided to add a small organza gift bag (10cm x 12cm) inside the heart pouch (so you can use it for a small gift) and a heart shaped card with a choice of greetings – or left blank, for your own message.

The heart sachet is a perfect size for small gifts like a gift card, money, chocolates, lipstick, jewellery or even lingerie …?

To make the cards for the back of the pouches, I used a die cutting machine. See my earlier post – One Tessallated Die – So Many Exciting Ways to Use It!.

I have a choice of 9 greetings I can make for the card with the dies I have available:

Is There an After Life?

For these heart sachets, the answer is most definitely yes.

Once your gift has been given, think about adding a pincushion to the pouch at the back to ensure your heart is made good use of for years to come.

Or what about a lavender sachet?

I embroidered these pretty sachets using a design I purchased from The Embroidery Library.

The person you love could use their heart sachet in so many ways. Here are just a few ideas:

A coaster for their favourite mug
Baby Keepsake – store a lock of hair or first teeth?
A jewellery pouch – for travelling

A Bag for Life?

As if there weren’t already enough options – another thought I had was that I might keep a heart sachet for myself and use it time after time. I have a gift bag that I gave to my daughter on her 1st birthday and have used every year since. She dutifully gives it back to me when she has opened the latest birthday present so it can be recycled next year.

So I’m sort of quietly hoping that the Easter heart sachet doesn’t sell. I have a grandchild on the way who would probably love me to fill it with Easter eggs every year …?!

Heart Up-Cycling!

This project is just perfect for using up scraps of material. I used curtain swatches and a number of items saved from the rag bag at my local St. Mary’s Hospice charity shop.