Make Tie-Dyed Heart Pincushions for Sweet Gift-Giving!

Did you know that you can make tie-dyed hearts for Valentine’s Day?  Arlene Poltrack created these delightful heart pincushions using a basic tie-dye technique. A traced heart is hand-stitched, gathered, tied and then dyed. Hearts can be made any size your heart desires and used in all types of craft projects. The heart in this project was about 2 ½” in diameter.  The pattern was made from a plastic template sheet so it could be reused many times. To create the heart shape when tie-dyeing, Arlene traced the heart shape onto white fabric; then she made a hand-running stitch with a needle and thread over the traced line, spacing stitches about ¼” apart so it looks like this. Don’t knot thread at the end!

After stitching, pull the end of the thread to gather the fabric on the stitched line, pushing your finger through the center to puff up the fabric. That’s the key to success!  Next, tie the ends of the thread into a knot and wrap a small rubber band around the thread. Then you’re ready to tie dye as usual!  Here’s a link to the full tutorial.   http://www.ritdye.com/content/tie-dye-heart-pincushions

Tie-dyed hearts can be created on T-shirts, pillows and clothing for a sweet treat that can be savored all year long!