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This woven heart pocket is a fun little project to make as a Valentine’s Day gift bag in felt or to make for art journaling or collage made in paper.
The woven heart is a traditional Scandinavian craft that’s often seen at the holidays, but I like to use them as pockets in crafts throughout the year.
Materials
You’ll need two pieces of paper or felt to make a heart. It’s helpful if they are different colors because it’s easier to see what you are doing and the checkerboard effect is more pronounced. Here I’m using regular red and white felt.
I’m also made hearts out of construction paper and pages torn out of a catalog (which you will see below). I also tried to make one with card stock but I couldn’t get the weaving to work, so I think thinner paper is better here.
You’ll also need a pair of scissors.
Making a Woven Heart
First cut one of your pieces of felt into a sort of long oval. I like to use the full width of the felt and just curve the ends. You don’t have to measure anything but my pieces are about 4 inches/ 10 cm wide. The curved part will the the top of your heart.
Use the first piece as a template to cut out the second piece.
Fold the pieces in half and cut through them together, making three cuts so you have four pieces to weave on each pieces. Don’t cut too high because again the curved parts will be the top of the heart.
Start with a loop one one end of the shape. Place the first loop from the other piece inside this loop.
Then place the loop from the first piece inside the second loop on the second piece.
Repeat this with the other two loops. Push that loop up toward the curved edges.
For the next loop, do the opposite. That is, take the loop from the first piece and put it inside the first loop on the second piece, then put the second inside the first and repeat.
Repeat both of these sequences with the remaining two loops.
This will feel a little tangly and maybe like you can’t do it, but you should be able to do it.
Smooth and stretch and trim around the curves if you like to give it more of a heart shape.
And now you have a woven heart pocket!
Uses for the Heart Pocket
Of course if Valentine’s Day is coming up you can use a woven heart as a little gift bag to hold a small treat. They’re also traditionally used as Christmas ornaments and decorations.
The paper ones are fun to use in crafts. You could put one on the front of a greeting card and stick something inside.
My catalog paper one I added to an art journal as a pocket. I used a bit of tape to attach it and taped the pieces to each other a little bit on the curves to make the pocket deeper. It’s great for storing stickers or little bits of paper or anything else you might want to keep in your journal.
Have you ever made a woven heart before? I’d love to know how you use them.
