Decorate Windows and Doorways on Valentine’s Day with Red and White Heart Garland

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and you are planning a romantic dinner for two. You have the perfect menu and now you need the right decorations. Red and white flowers are always great for a centerpiece, but how about other areas of the room. You can add a romantic and fun mood to your dinner-for-two by dressing your windows and doorways with garland made of red and white hearts. The garland is easy and fun to make and the materials are inexpensive.

Items needed to make garland

Pink yarn

Heart shaped cookie cutter or paper template (one two-inch and one three-inch)

Several sheets of red and white felt

Red and white embroidery floss

Embroidery needle

Darning needle (large eye)

Scissors

Pencil

Straight pins

Fabric or craft glue

One-half inch red and white buttons (optional)

Fusible webbing (optional)

Iron (optional)

Fiberfil (optional)

About the hearts

You first need to plan how you want your garland to look. Each heart for the garland will require four hearts. The two base or bottom hearts, which are three-inches, and the two top hearts, which are two-inches. Each of the base hearts can be the same color or one could be red and one white, and the same with the top hearts. The thing to remember is not to put like colors together on the same side. Make as many hearts as needed for the length of garland you want.

Making one heart

Using the cookie cutters or templates, outline and cut out two three-inch hearts from the red felt and two two-inch hearts from the white. Center the white hearts on the red hearts and pin in place. If using the fusible webbing, iron it to the white felt according to the manufacturer's instructions, draw your hearts on the paper side, and then cut them out. Peel off the paper backing and center them on the red felt hearts. Press with an iron according to the manufacturer's instructions for the fusible webbing.

Put the backs of the two base hearts together, so that the white hearts are showing on either side. Start at the heart point on the bottom and start closing the opening with a blanket stitch using three strands of the embroidery floss and a needle. If using Fiberfil, stop stitching one inch before the point and loosely fill heart with it, then continue the stitching.

Stringing the hearts

After you have made all your hearts, thread the darning needle with the pink yarn (length depends on how long you want the garland and how many hearts you have made). Insert the needle though a center side opening where the blanket stitch is and push the needle through to the other side. The yarn should be hidden inside the heart. You may have to squish the heart to get the needle to the other side. Continue adding the rest of the hearts. After you have all your hearts on the yarn, space them out (I prefer them six inches apart) and apply a small dab of fabric glue on either side of the heart where the yarn enters and leaves.

Besides doorways and windows, consider draping the garland around a table attaching it at every corner. It also sets a romantic mood when strung across a headboard.

NOTE: Just like Christmas garland, this Valentine creation can be used year after year.

Source: Personal Experience