Week 4 Creative Challenge : Romantic Puffy Hearts Made From a Vintage Pillowcase

Hello! For last week’s creative challenge (as introduced in this post), I used some cotton fabric from a worn out vintage pillowcase to make a few stuffed hearts.

I really like the shape of hearts, so end up making some sort of decoration featuring them every year as we approach Valentine’s Day. My usual colour scheme tends to be in the dark range, with rich ruby reds, deep turquoise and quite a bit of black (as seen here), so, with this project, I wanted to try something different. When I looked through my bin of scrap fabric, this well worn vintage pillowcase stood out as a good option for the soft romantic pastel effect, with an old fashioned primitive handmade look, that I had in mind.

The fabric itself was dotted with holes and several very thin and fragile areas, so the shape, size and quantity of the hearts was dependent on where I could cut to avoid having a hole in the finished product.

As seen in this photo, the border of the pillowcase was not nearly as worn out as the rest, so I saved that piece intact.

I sewed the hearts by hand one evening while watching a movie after Nick had gone to bed — he’s a morning person and I’m a night owl, so we each have a few hours alone everyday, which is needed after more than a decade of both of us working from home. Through the window, I could see snow falling outside, as I drank lemon-ginger tea, while my essential oil diffuser filled the room with a gentle scent of a pine forest. It was a calm and relaxing thing to do, and the finished product gives me joy. If you made something last week, I hope it was a nice experience for you.

Thank you for reading xo loulou

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