Heart Keychains with Tutorial Link

Day #157
Hearts #130-135


I have six more Heart Keychains to show you today.  It was my intention when starting this challenge that no two hearts would be exactly the same, but I'm making an exception to that rule today, because I am still so behind in my count!

I love these cute doggie faces!

Birds are always popular

And my favorite, bright blue and green.

These keychains can be made entirely by hand, so you could bring your materials with you if you wanted to work on a project while travelling.  (You just need to get things started at home before you go, since there is some ironing.)
If you would like to make some of these yourself, just follow this link to my other blog:  Leslie's Art and Sew.  I've just posted the tutorial there.  I'd love to hear about it if you do make some; if you email me a picture, I will post it here too!

More Heart Keychains

Day #137
Hearts #108-110

As you can see, I've made a few more of these heart keychains.  I made a few changes, because I want them to be good enough to sell.  Today I made up a "kit" with everything in it to make one of these, and brought it with me to an appointment where I knew I might have to wait for a while, and it was easy to do away from home--so I'm going to make up a bunch of kits to have handy when I need something to keep my hands busy! 

My lovely reader Kay commented, on the previous heart keychain, that she would like to try one of these, because it is (mostly) hand sewing.  I love it when I get comments from readers!  I was inspired by her comment to come up with a tutorial for these.  I am working on it now, and I will post it on my other blog, Leslie's Art and Sew, when it is done.  I will even show you how to do it entirely by hand, Kay!

I redesigned it so there is no stitching to bother with on the back.  I also added two layers of interfacing to give it more stiffness.

The hardest part is finding fabric with a small image that looks good when framed like this.  Of course, you could always make a small embroidered or cross-stitched piece to go in the center.

Heart Keychain

Day #131
Heart #107

I saw a cute heart keychain at Toastie Studio this week, and I couldn't rest until I tried one myself.  I changed it by putting a layer of felt over my printed fabric so it is reverse appliqued.  The edges are hand-embroidered.

Front:

Back:

In my hand:

It has imperfections because this was the practice one...I needed to get a feel for how it would go together.  Normally after the first one, I make changes and do a second and third one before I get something I like.  This time, though, I like it just like this!  It seems just the right size and weight and sturdiness to be a functional keychain, so I think I will make a few more, with different fabric centers and different color combinations.