diy hearts.

Hi schooners! I'm Mary Beth and I blog over at Annapolis & Company about our new life in the midwest. We're lovers of rainy days, starbucks coffee dates, weekend adventures, and anything stripy and nautical. I hope you'll come say hello!

Today we're talking DIY simple. Real simple. I am a novice seamstress, at best, and this was one of my first projects I ever did! There are several tutorials out there for this one, but I have included my method below using old J Crew sweaters for my coordinating fabric. I love the texture and cozy it adds to a basic concept. Want to make some of these darlings too???

What you'll need:

Plus...

// a sewing machine

// iron and ironing board

// and something hard you can iron on, like a piece of wood.

{Never used Heat n Bond before? You can find it here.}

Step One: Print out your image you are using for your appliqué, or free-hand one.

Step Two: Cut out your image.

Step Three: Cut your fabric to slightly larger than your image cut-out.

Step Four: Cut heat n' bond to the same shape as your fabric.

Step Five: Make sure you place your heat n' bond with the bumpy and glossy side facing up and backing your fabric. {This is the side that, when heated, will make it adhere to your fabric.}

Step Six: Iron your fabric to the heat n' bond on a low heat setting, on top of a hard surface, such as a piece of wood {as shown here}. You want it to be completely bonded to the fabric.

Step Seven: Trace your image to the back of your fabric, wrong side facing you, if you are using an image where direction matters.

Step Eight: Cut out your image now.

Step Nine: Peel the backing of the heat n bond away from your fabric. There should be left a glossy surface on your fabric.

Step Ten: Arrange the placement of your appliqués onto your article of clothing.

Step Eleven: Run a top stitch around your appliqué. I keep my machine on the slowest setting it will go, so that my stitching can be as accurately close to the edge of my appliqué as possible. I also love my triple stitch setting on my machine, which is the stitch shown above. Looks professional and gives instant texture! And I used a zig zag stitch for this J. Crew, chunky, sweater material below...

Simply adorable, no?

Want to see more DIY's, family friendly recipes, and some schooner tales thrown in? Come visit our family at Annapolis & Company!