This “how to sew a heart pillow” tutorial is an easy step-by-step guide that takes up little time to make cute heart-shaped cushions to spice up the room.
What You May Not Know About Heart Pillows
Did you know that heart pillows offer their own share of therapeutic benefits? For instance, these are often given to patients who’ve recently had open-heart surgery. Since this type of surgical procedure involves the division of the patient’s chest cavity to access the heart, this makes it necessary for the chest area and the breast bone to receive the support they need for the next three months that follow after the procedure.
Heart pillows are known to help these patients manage the discomfort each time they cough, perform deep breathing exercises as they breathe through an incentive spirometer, laugh, sneeze, and even get out of bed. Although the heart pillow is a non-medicated item, it helps safeguard the incision site and reduce the pain every time the patient embraces it. Needless to say, the heart pillow isn’t just a beautiful addition to any living space, but it can also be used to help post-heart surgery patients to recover well.
A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Sew a Heart Pillow
You will need a printed-out heart pattern, 2/3 yard broad, 1/2 medium, and 1/3 tiny fleeces in making a heart-shaped pillow. You will need 2/3 yards wide in addition to the yarn for a ruffled fabric pillow, 1/2 for medium, and 1/3 for a short one.
Prepare the sewing essentials such as scissors, rotary cutter, mat, ruler, thread, and needle. If you have only begun to knit or sew in terms of digital patterns, this simple guide will allow you to learn how to assemble the designs and start sewing.
Step 1: Assembling the pieces
First of all, the pattern has to be downloaded and printed. Ensure that the printer provides ample paper and ink. It is also best not to print from your browser in Adobe PDF.
Once the pattern is correctly assembled, you must select the cushion’s size, cut the template to the right size, put it on the flat surface, and cut the heart-shaped patterns for a total of two hearts.
You can also make a total of four hearts if a heart is made of knitted ruffle fabric. You must take out two hearts placed and folded twice from the ruffle using a cutter to create four hearts.
You would then use your rotary cutter and mat to remove the pillow’s side strips. The large size will require a 3.5 to 71″ length, and you need to stitch a few bands together for the medium size of 3.5 to 58″. For a smaller size, the length is 3.5 to 43″.
Step 2: Preparing for the ruffles
Since the ruffle fabric is stretchable, you have to tie it to the fleece to fit. Attach the right fleece side on the opposite side of the ruffle fabric. Sew the seam with a 0.25 allowance. Make sure that the ruffle is stitched in the same direction.
Step 3: Sewing the sides
Pin the strips all over the heart on the right sides. Stitch together the edges of the strip. The sewn lines should overlap one another about an inch. Then stitch the band around the sides of the heart using a seam of 5 inches.
Step 4: Attaching the back part
Pin the back of the heart on the pillow with the right sides. Just make sure you create a 4″ space for rotating and stuffing. Then, cut excess slits on the edges of the heart without cutting through the seam.
Step 5: Stuffing the pillow
Stuff your heart-shaped pillow with the raw material of your choice. You can go for cotton or polyester stuffing as long as it is bigger than the cover to completely fill up space. Remember that your pillow’s stuffing defines your ideal comfort.
The amount of stuffing you use decides the size of your heart-shaped pillow. The more stuffing you mount, the more gigantic the pillow will appear. You will have to merge it and pull on the curves to get the heart shape you desire.
Step 6: Closing the stitches
If your heart is filled to your taste, tuck the sides into your pillow. Take a thread and sew the gap closed with a whip stitch by hand. After that, your heart-shaped pillow is secured. You may also opt to use the machine to have a neat stitch.
You may use pins or clips to temporarily close the opening, protecting your hand from tightness as you sew up the gap. In this way, it will save a lot of pressure on your hand while stitching. Finally, knot the last stitch, and you got your heart pillow.
Conclusion
Heart-shaped pillows are ideal gifts for loved ones during Valentine’s season or holidays. Most of the time, these pillows are not made available in malls or shops. This is when DIY tutorials appear online to guide people into creating their own.
These guidelines on how to sew a heart pillow are easy to follow and save you time from looking through shops. Plus, it is more meaningful to give gifts that are made personally.