Valentine-Inspired Sewing and Stitching Projects

written by Darla Christiansen

If you're looking for Valentine sewing ideas, start here.

Whether you’re sewing a Valentine’s gift or just ready for a February sewing project, here are some sweetheart projects to choose from.

Bags and Bins to Sew

Here are some pre-tty cute bags and small bins Sewfinity owner Angela has whipped up using ByAnnie patterns and supplies. The hardest part of making these will be deciding whether to give them away or keep for yourself. Yourself is totally a legit answer. I’m sure keeping one qualifies as self care.

• Drop Zone Zippered Trays: A small and simple project! Looks like a bag, unzips into a tray. Genius.

• Glo and Go: This two-part project features a darling zip-top bag with HSTs (half square triangles) and a roll-up wrap bag that keeps all the tools you pack for your next sewing day.

• Contain Yourself: Three sizes of bins, perfect at your sewing station, at your desk or in your dresser drawer. I’m seeing the small one filled with Dove dark chocolates, keys and change, or possibly sewing clips.

• Monochrome Clam Up Pouches : I totally remember the day when Angela shared one of these at our guild meeting. I went home and started making zipper pouches of all sorts. You will, too.

Valentine’s Sewing

Here’s a lineup of charming quilt patterns that are easily adaptable. Go ahead and make a quilt or turn a block into something different altogether. If you’re in the mood, give one of these a go:

• Make one block to create a throw pillow (here’s our free tutorial for making a pillow cover)
• Or, sew that quilt block to the back of a thrifted denim jacket for some wearable art
• Or, take the block and use it for a tote bag

I Heart You

Aaawww, that’s so nice. (wink) Those little conversation bubbles say it all, don’t they? And the color variations! Oh my. So many options. Check out the rainbow version Angela stitched up along with more color mock-ups. The freshness of that bright apple green calls to me.

• This mod pattern uses simple piecing and is great for all skill levels
• It comes with a handy coloring page to create your own color combinations
• You can get up to 15 half-heart pieces from one fat quarter. Oh ya!
  

Quilty Love Hearts Series

A slew of hearts and nary a curve or template in sight! Welcome to the happy place. This is a clever way to create the illusion of the heart shape while taking a hard pass on templates or easing in curved piecing.

Emily at Quilty Love riffs on the heart theme with a series patterns to choose from. Here’s just a sampling:

• Infinite Hearts: This is my personal fav, partly because I can imagine using aaallll those strips in my scrap bin to create the hearts. Ok, not all the strips but enough to make room to restock with new strips. Could you add more background to make one stripey heart for a pillow or one of the ideas above? Yes. Yes you could.

• Patchwork Hearts II: This is another easily customizable pattern. Use that bundle you bought last year to create the background. Or dive back into that scrap bin. Make it solids or prints or mix it up.

Heartbreaker

For all my paper piecing friends out there, this one is for you. (Cue Pat Benatar) Seriously, this is a stunning pattern from Audrey at Cotton and Bourbon. She’s known for creating crisp, modern patterns. These hearts look sophisticated and a just little bit fancy, what with those geometric shapes and all.

• The individual blocks are 20” square – hello, throw pillow!
• You can use medium and dark shades of one color to create moody, monochromatic hearts
• The hardcopy pattern already includes your full-size templates

Looking for a Valentine cross stitch project?

There’s a kit for that.

• Love Bugs: Um, what is cuter than lady bugs with hearts on their backs? Not a thing, unless a bunch of them fly into formation and land in the shape of a heart.

• Love Blooms: Stitch up some springtime with these tulip-y looking heart flowers on a pale green background. Then leave them on display all year long.

• Modern Botanical Wedding Sampler: Hey, it’s engagement season! That means you’ll be a wedding guest before long. While you stitch up this charming sampler, you can contemplate what to wear to the ceremony and how to act humble when everyone raves about what you made.