DIY Valentine's Day Gifts: Easy Handmade Heart Purses

Valentine's Day isn't just about cards, flowers and chocolates. Girls need their Valentine's Day bling as well. These felt heart purses are easy, inexpensive and so lovable.

We made mini-purses that are just the right size for lip-gloss and chewing gum. The steps and materials would be exactly the same to make a typical size purse.

Sewing with felt and yarn is fairly easy so kids ages seven and up could make their own. Tweens may enjoy making them as gifts for friends. This aunt couldn't resist making one as an early Valentine's Day gift for her niece. The mini-heart purses can be put inside of a Valentine's Day card and mailed with just one extra stamp.

Materials:

Felt in red or pink
White yarn
Large needle
Pincushion
Buttons
Scissors
Marker
Heart stencil or pattern

Directions:

Decide on the perfect size for your DIY Valentine's purse. Trace the heart onto the felt. You'll need two per purse for a front and back.

If you want to add a button embellishment to the purse, it should be sewn on before the purse is stitched together. Creating a smiley face is popular with young artist. A button in the dip of the heart is always cute.

Knot one end of the yarn and thread it through the needle. Make it plenty long to stitch all the way around the purse.

Tip: The kids that I worked with had a tendency to want to start their stitches at the bottom of the heart and work up the side but then it needed to be tied off, re-knotted and threaded and stitched from the bottom up the other side. If the sewing begins at the top, stitches can be continuous.

Once the purse is sewn together it is time to add the shoulder strap. Measure with the yarn against where you want the purse to hang. While older kids often like to run the should strap across the body like a satchel, little girls often like to wear the purses like necklaces which is really adorable too.

The strap is added by knotting one end with a large, strong, triple knot and then stitching through the other side of the heart, tying another knot and trimming off excess.

Ideas for the Purse Straps

We used the white yarn for the straps as well but if you have pretty Valentine's Day ribbon that would work too.

If you do use ribbon, you can make the strap thicker by braiding three strands of yarn together before tacking on the strap.

Additionally, you could add red and pink beads to the yarn as you are braiding it to add even more bling.

As you can see, while the basic pattern for the DIY heart purse for Valentine's Day, kids can easily embellish them with their own creative style. Either way, kids will love these handmade Valentine's Day gifts.