With a little time and effort on a lazy Sunday morning, these sweet pillowcases can be yours just in time for Valentine’s Day. And don’t despair if sewing skills aren’t the first thing you list on your crafting resume. If you can operate a basic stitch on a sewing machine, you can tackle this project in only a few hours.
What you’ll need:
Letter templates 1/2 yard of fabric for the letters Straight pins A large piece of paper 1 yard of fabric for the heart Thread to match both fabrics Two pillowcases
Tools:
Scissors A sewing machine (or a lot of patience to do this by hand) For a no-sew version, use adhesive fabric tape
Steps :
1. Start by printing and cutting out the letter templates. Note: You can find a wide variety of free letter templates online. If you have a font you particularly like you could also make your own templates.
2. Once you have the letters cut out, take the fabric you will be using for the letters and cut out squares large enough for each letter. Pin the letter to the fabric square. Cut carefully around the pinned letter until it’s completely cut out. Repeat for each remaining letter.
3. Make a template for the heart shape. This will vary based on the size of the pillowcases you’ve chosen. For standard pillowcases, you can use a large paper bag from the grocery store as the paper for your template. Be sure to line up the letters of “hers” on the template before you draw the heart so you know how wide it needs to be. When you’re ready to draw the heart, put the age-old heart-drawing trick to good use: Fold the paper in half then draw half of the heart (with the fold as the middle) so that both sides come out the same.
4. After the heart template has been cut, cut along the fold line so that you have two halves. Pin the halves to the fabric for the heart and cut accordingly. Next, pin the letters to the heart, making sure to pin “his” to the corresponding pillow for his side of the bed and “hers” to the pillow for her side.
5. Now comes the fun part: sewing the letters onto each half of the heart. Note: We recommend practicing on an extra letter and some scrap fabric first.
6. Pin the hearts onto each pillowcase. Be sure to leave about half an inch of space from the edge of the pillowcase to allow room for the pillowcase to expand once fitted with pillows. Next, sew the hearts onto the pillowcases.
Congratulations!
You now have two pillowcases that form one heart, ready to be used on Feb. 14 or year-round.
Note: Still not ready to take on the needle and thread? Not to worry. You can use adhesive fabric tape instead of sewing. Simply follow steps one, two and three, then adhere the letters and heart to the pillow following the instructions on the package.
Text, styling and photography by Beka Watts
