DIY Conversation Heart Pillows

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, but you still have time to whip up some DIY Conversation Heart Pillows.

Well, hello there, my friends.

It’s been too long…I’ve missed our ‘chats’!

Without going into detail, I can honestly say that we are just coming out of 10 of the darkest days of our lives.  It was one of those times when it’s all you can do to put one foot in front of the other and keep on going…which is what we did and are at, blessedly, at the other end.

I share this with you because a) I know there was a dramatic radio silence at this end and b) to remind us all that there are folks you see at the grocery store, at the office or waiting for your table who are carrying an incredibly heavy burden, though invisible, which is making it difficult for them to put that one foot in front of the other. But yet, they are doing it.

It was a stark reminder to me that I need to redouble my efforts to treat EVERYONE with unwavering and genuine kindness and gentleness. We just never know what burdens our fellow humans are bearing.

So, with that out of the way…let’s talk about these fun and relatively easy DIY Conversation Heart Pillows…perfect for the upcoming Valentine’s Day.

I’m not sure what the genesis of these pillows was…hmmm…for some reason, I just felt the need to make Conversation Heart Pillows.  I have seen others out and about on the googler machine, but I wanted mine to really look like conversation hearts…with straight sides.

I am sending these pillows to our daughter for a Valentine’s Day gift, so I put on one of our oft-used mantras, as well as one of my favorite terms of endearment, as the messages on the hearts.

Here’s a fun list if you need some prompting for Conversation Heart messages.

what you need to make for diy conversation heart pillows

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• Foam. For each pillow, I used 1 Foam Pad (3″ X 15″ x 17″)
• Electric Knife
• 1 yard of fabric.  I used Kona Cotton in pink and white.
• I used some mini pom pom edging for the white pillow
• Batting (low loft)
• Adhesive Spray
• Sewing Machine
• Cricut Machine (I have the Cricut Explore Air 2)
• I used Pink Iron-On Foil because not one of the 3 Craft Stores we have in town had the non-metallic iron on.  If I had planned ahead, I would’ve used this Pink Iron-On instead…just a personal preference. The letters would have been fun in blue as well.

how to make pillows

I will describe how I made these pillows, but I also have a video that is at the bottom of the post.

• I drew a heart on a piece of paper…I used brown Kraft paper.  I still draw my heart as I did in elementary school by folding the paper in half and drawing half of a heart, cutting it out, and then unfolding it so that my heart is symmetrical.
• Then I traced the heart onto the piece of foam…I lined it up so that I could have the outline of the heart on both the front and back of the foam.  This made it easier to cut it out with the electric knife as I made sure I didn’t gouge in the side of the pillow without the lines…you know how easy that is to do.
• I then cut it out with my electric knife.
• I cut out the heart shape and 3″ strips (the sides of my pillow are 3″) out of batting…the batting is a pretty thin low loft.
• I adhered the batting to the foam with the spray adhesive.  You can decide if you want to do it on the front and back, just the front or not at all.  You can see the in pictures…the pink has batting on the front, back, and sides, and the white has the batting only on the sides.
• Then the sewing began.  I attached the side piece to one of the heart pieces (fronts together), making sure that I didn’t crease either of the pieces.  It was slow, working the needle around the corners and not folding the fabric, but it wasn’t hard. Just take your time. I did it two ways…One way I attached the side so that the two ends of the side fabric met in the middle of the heart…between the 2 bumps on top.  The other way was to have the two ends of the side fabric meet on the bottom point of the heart.  I think the second way was easier to get a clean seam.
• Once I had the one piece attached to the side piece, I fitted it around the pillow to see how much seam allowance I needed for the second heart piece.  I pinned to get a good gauge and then went back to my sewing machine, only sewing half of the second heart piece to the sides to squeeze the foam in.
• I pressed the pillow real well and cut out my words using my Cricut.  There are tons of videos out there showing how to use iron-on material with your Cricut.  Here’s a post I did last year but here are some of my takeaways on using Iron Ons with Cricut:
  • Make sure you cut on the back of the material…the finished side will be face down on your mat when you  cut (been there…done that)
  • Make sure your machine knows it’s using a KISS cut…you don,t want to cut through the clear material(been there and done that too).
  • Use a cloth between your iron and the material
• Then it was just a matter of tucking the foam into the pillow and hand-stitching it closed.
• TA DA!

Here’s the DIY Conversation Heart Pillow video for the visual learners out there:

My posse follows me throughout the house.  Flora needed to jump on the bed just as I was taking photos…once I obliged her with a photo and ushered her off, Peep decided she needed her moment in the spotlight.

If you found this DIY Conversation Heart Pillows tutorial helpful, then bookmark this page or Pin the following image for future reference.

Lastly, if you are looking for more DIY Cricut projects, check out these leather cord keepers that I used my Cricut to make. They make fantastic gifts as well!

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!