Valentine Candy Dish
It's soon Valentine's Day again. I don't know about you, but I don't like to limit the festivities to just my husband. I like to celebrate the lovely friends I have as well! This is a unique gift that looks nice year-round, not just on the day of hearts. It does take a little sewing skill but I think even beginners could tackle it with a measure of success.
Use the pdf pattern above to cut out all your fabrics. It's best to choose crisp cotton fabrics to work with. Also choose a stiff fusible interfacing--if it's too thin your dish will not have a good shape in the end. This is a reversible dish, so you can have fun mixing and matching fabrics to use. I like to choose three prints: one for each square and another for the hearts (fig.A).
Iron the interfacing on to one of the square pieces. Also attach the fusible webbing onto one of the hearts and peel off the paper backing. Place it in the center of one of the squares and iron it in place. There's no need to grab for the ruler, the great thing about this project is that you don't have to have things exactly perfect for it to look great.
Line up the two squares, wrong sides together, with the heart facing you. Carefully stitch close to the edge of the heart with a straight stitch (fig.B). This is a guide line so that you can position the second heart on the opposite side. Press the second heart in place.
Now you need to cut away some of the square fabric to give your dish its form. Always cut a triangle away at the bottom point of the heart. Then cut three small bits away from the most curved areas of each upper half of the heart. The less you cut the easier it is to sew, but the more you cut the more defined the sides of your dish will be. I suggest that you cut sparingly at least on your first try. Always take care not to cut too much from the top half of the heart, in any case. Use fig.C as a guide (fig.C).
Make sure you have a full bobbin of thread. Trust me, you'll end up cursing if you run out in the middle of this project. Set your machine to its widest zig-zag and at a very low stitch length. You want to get almost a satin-stitch effect. Place your fabric under the needle so that you will be sewing from the edge of the heart out towards the edge of the square. You'll need to do a little finagling with your fingers during this step, but just be patient and you will get the feel for it. Hold two cut edges together and start to sew, keeping the cut in the center of your presser foot. Keep pushing the two cut edges together as you go (fig.D).
Now do that with all of your cut-away areas and you should end up with something similar to fig.E (fig.E). Trim away the top edge however you'd like. I like to accentuate the heart shape by cutting a small dip at the top of the heart.
You'll now finish that cut edge. Place it under the needle so that when you zig-zag the stitching kind of wraps around the outer edge of the dish. I like to sew over the edge twice to give it a cleaner finish, but I've also left some with only one round of stitching and it gives it a more rustic look with a bit of frayed edges peeking out. You decide how you want yours to look. The final step is to finish the edges of the hearts. Place it under the needle again, I find it easiest to start along one of the straight sides of the heart. Zig-zag around the heart to finish all the edges. You're finished!
Now fill it up with candy, hair ties, cotton balls...whatever your friends would appreciate and enjoy the warm glow you get from giving gifts that you made yourself.