Valentine's Day Felt Cookies Tutorial

A finished plate of cookies for someone sweet in my life

My son is a winter baby and his birthday is fast approaching so this year after the rush of Christmas I actually have a little free time to make something besides mobiles.  The result: new playfood for my little sweetheart.

Since I am still running high on the holiday spirit I figured I would also share a tutorial with everyone so you can stitch up a batch of lovely valentine cookies for someone sweet in your life too.  This is a super easy tutorial that only uses a running stitch. If you don't know what it is here is a link to a tutorial by Wendi Gratz showing her doing a running stitch (that is the stitch that you teach kids with lacing boards, really!). 


So here is what you will need:

1 piece of red or dark pink colored felt
2 pieces of oatmeal or tan colored felt (I got mine from Etsy)
light pink embroidery floss
polyfill 
pattern making paper or tracing paper
pinking shears
regular shears
embroidery needle (not shown above - oops!)
sewing pins  (not shown above - oops!)

Let's get started:

1. Fold your pattern paper or tracing paper in half and cut out half a heart.  Think back to making valentines in 2nd Grade - you know how to do this!

2. Pin your heart pattern onto your red felt and cut around the edges of the heart with your regular shears.

3. Pin your heart pattern on top of your 2 pieces of tan felt which you have stacked and cut around the edges of the heart with your pinking shears.  Follow the edge, don't cut into the paper.

4. Separate your tan felt pieces and fold 1 piece in half along the center line.  Cut a smaller heart into this piece to create a hollow center (see photo below of finished pieces).

 Now you have all your pieces cut out and you are ready to start stitching.  I did this all by hand but if you are in a hurry you could do this on your sewing machine instead, you just won't get the nice embroidery detailing.

5. Pin your top cookie piece to your middle red heart layer and pull your embroidery floss through from the red piece up through the tan piece so that the knot will be under the red (and won't show).  Now sew around the edge of the heart window with a running stitch (see this tutorial for refresher).

6. Once you are done it should look like this.  Now get your other cookie piece (the one without a heart cut into it) and place it beneath and pin all three layers together.

7. With all 3 layer pinned together - start a new length of embroidery thread from under the red layer and pull through to the front tan piece so your knot will be hidden inside the cookie.  Sew all three layers together with a running stitch around the edge approximately 1/4 inch from the edge.

8.  When you are a few inches from where you started your stitch at the center take a little bit of polyfill (one small handful worth) and place it in the heart.  Then continue your running stitch around the remainder of the edge.

9.  Wrap the thread around your needle and pull the needle through to make a knot.  Then pull the knot into the heart and clip the thread so it will not be seen.

You are done!  You now have a beautiful heart cookie to share with someone special in your life.