A Heart-Felt Valentine Pillow Tutorial

With the calendar flipping to February (tomorrow!) and Valentine’s Day just a few weeks away, it’s time to start pulling out all things red, pink, and with hearts all over! But even if you’re like me and aren’t ready to deck the halls all over again (the Christmas decor just got packed away after all!), this ultra-modern, simple, and festive heart pillow is an easy way to add just a touch of love to your living space. You can easily finish this DIY Valentine pillow in just an afternoon using supplies you likely already have on hand…so grab some chocolate hearts, crank up Delilah on the radio, and you can have this darling accessory ready to go before the big love day is upon us!

This Valentine pillow is an envelope-style pillow cover, which means it doesn’t have any zippers or closures. You can slide it right onto an any pillow already on your couch just for the season and then pull it off when Valentine’s Day has come and gone! This project really is an easy one, even for novice sewers. And since it relies on inexpensive felt, it’s super budget-friendly too. Let me walk you through it!

Materials Needed

For an 18” square pillow, you will need:

• Felt Hearts – Admittedly, I cut mine on my Cricut Explore out of sheets of felt, but you can easily cut these by hand or buy pre-cut felt hearts off Amazon or Etsy. Here are some great options: 1 | 2 | 3
• 3/4 Yard of Pillow Fabric – quilting cotton, home decor fabric, fleece or even felt by-the-yard are all great options!
• Coordinating thread
• 18” square pillow form
• Basic sewing tools: scissors, sewing machine, pins, rotary cutter/cutting mat/ruler

Cutting the Valentine Pillow Fabrics

From your pillow fabric, cut one 19”x19” square and two 19”x12” rectangles; set aside.

For the front of the pillow, you will need about 45 felt hearts. The hearts pictured below measure 2”x2,” but you can cut hearts any size you wish. To cut the hearts yourself, either trace a stencil and cut each one out with scissors or use a die-cut machine (such as a Cricut) to make uniform hearts. Also, pre-cut felt hearts are easy to find in an array of colors and sizes: 1 | 2 | 3

Adding the Hearts to the Pillow Front

Next, play around a bit to decide on the arrangement of the hearts and how you want them to cover the pillow front.

I ultimately decided on staggered hearts in a rectangle formation.

Before sewing the hearts to the pillow, it is easiest to first sew the hearts into vertical strips. Do this by feeding the hearts into your sewing machine, keeping your stitch speed steady. Sew right through the center of a heart and onto the next one.

Once all your hearts for one column are sewn together, trim the threads on both the top and bottom. Continue to sew all the columns together.

With the hearts sewn together, it’s time to sew them to the pillow front. Start by finding the center of the 19”x19” square of pillow fabric by folding it in half one way, then the other, creasing the center, and then unfolding it completely. Because there is an even number of heart strips, you will need to place the first strip of hearts off center by lining up the left edges of the hearts on the center crease. Make sure to also center the heart strip vertically on the fabric. Pin the hearts in place with straight pins.

Using a sewing machine, secure the hearts to the pillow front by stitching right back over the stitches created when first sewing the hearts into strings. Trim threads carefully.

Continue to work outward from the first column of hearts, pinning and sewing one column at a time until the pillow front is full or you’ve run out of heart strips! Your pillow front is now done.

Assembling the Valentine Pillow

The next step is to turn the pillow front into an actual pillowcase. To start, hem one long side (the 19” side) of both rectangles by folding over ½” and pressing, then folding over another ½” and sewing the seam shut with a sewing machine.

Then, with the pillow front (with all the hearts on it) facing UP, lay one rectangle on top with the right side facing DOWN and the hemmed seam toward the middle.

Place the second rectangle on top of the first one, also with the right side facing DOWN and the hemmed seam toward the middle. Pin all the way around the perimeter of the pillow and then sew all four sides shut with a sewing machine.

Trim each corner before flipping the pillowcase right-side-out through the “envelope” opening. Press the corners out to a pointed tip with a knitting needle, chopstick or other blunt object.

Slip the pillowcase onto a spare throw pillow or new pillow form, and you’re done! Toss the pillow on a couch, chair, or entryway bench to bring a little Valentine’s Day cheer into your home.

This pillow comes together rather quickly once all the hearts are cut out. And since it’s just a pillow cover, it can be slid off, folded up and tucked away for next year. Inexpensive, easy, an re-usable..now that’s my kind of holiday decor!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends! See you back here next week with the next installment of The HUB, and the February Coffee Break!