Day 8 – Midsummer Stitched Hearts Card

I haven’t sewn in year but today’s project makes even the most embroidery-phobic feel able. The tutorial has lots of ridiculously useful information about how to format a pattern using your computer, but these cards would also work just as well with a free-hand sketch as the pattern.

I love the raised texture they give the card and makes what is often a throw-away token into something creative and personal. Best of all, the sewing part looks really easy…good news for me!

Thanks Nic! I can’t wait to give these a go…

Midsummer Hearts Card

by Nic Faull

Stitch yourself a handmade card for any occasion using printed shapes or hand drawn designs.

It’s surprisingly easy and very effective. Use embroidery floss, lace weight or sock weight yarns. Anything a bit shiney is nice. Subtle variations in colour can be effective too. Mohair could be intriguing.

This project is suitable for anyone who can wield a needle without losing an eye. (Their own eye or any other eye.) Some supervision is needed for children.

For the Hearts card you’ll need:

• Blank card of your choice
• Computer and printer
• Microsoft Word or suitable other. I’m an equal opportunity word processor.
  (Please note, earlier versions of MS Word may have a different menu system for these features.)
• Alternatively why not hand draw the hearts or any shape you like? G’won, it’s easy.
• A selection of yarn for the embroidery
• Any sequins or embellishments you’d like.
• A sharpish tapestry needle appropriate for your yarn choice and with a suitable eye for threading

Tutorial Steps for the Heart Card:

1. Create a new document in Microsoft Word and change the orientation under the ‘Page Layout’ tab to ‘Landscape’. That’s side-to-side, instead of up-and-down, OK?
2. Insert a BIG table that has 1 row and 2 columns. Fiddle about until it looks something like this.
3. Click the cursor into the table column on the right.
4. Insert a heart shape using the ‘Inset Tab’ and selecting ‘Shapes’. After you’ve clicked on the little heart icon, draw the heart by placing the cursor, clicking the left mouse button and dragging the mouse downwards and to the right. All at the same time. Go ahead. Have a little practice. Position the heart where’d you’d like it.
5. Change the settings of the heart shape using the styling options. This sample is a red dashed line, but it doesn’t really matter, you’ll be sewing over this line. There are lots of different shadow and 3-D effects you can try out.
6. Change the fill options to whatever you like. Pink in this instance.
7. When your shape is finished, select it with the cursor and then copy and paste a few more.
8. You can make them smaller or bigger. Fiddle about with these to your heart’s content. (Geddit? HEART’s content…sheesh! Never mind.)
9. Remove the table borders by changing the border style to ‘no border’. Like so.
10. Don’t forget that you can add a text message while you’re here.
11. Insert the blank card into the printer and print your design. You’ll have to fiddle about with the width of the printer paper feed to keep the card feeding straight. Practice on spare card or blank paper to determine which way up the card has to go into the printer in order for the motif to appear on the front of the folded card. Usually the printer prints on the downside of what is in the printer tray so the outside of the card faces down. You may have to move your shapes around so that they appear where you’d like on the card. Or try moving the little tabs in the printer feeder to the middle or the other side. Printers are tricky, you know that right?
12. Using a sharp thick-ish needle, prick out a line of small holes along the outline of the heart.
13. Thread your needle with the yarn and sew a line of backstitches around the outline. You can use a running stitch or another stitch if you prefer.
14. Repeat for the other hearts. You can sew other lines of stitches inside or outside the heart shapes if you wish. Just leave a gap between the lines so the heart doesn’t fall out. We can’t have that happen.

The End :)

Says Nic – ‘I’m a slightly obsessed knitter living in beautiful Co. Wicklow, Ireland, who has way more Stash than Time. I blog about my knitting adventures at nicknits.blogspot.com and I occasionally attempt to design things. Please do not hesitate to contact me for any help with this project. nicknits AT gmail DOT com.’