tutorial: crooked heart valentine vase & votive

If your beloved has lovable flaws, and your relationship has its wobbly moments, maybe you should consider making this project for Valentines Day. It celebrates the meandering and the lopsided in love and in life. Plus, it’s kind of sweet, and a super-fast and cheap gift when filled with a few blooms or a nice-smelling candle.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Large-ish Jar (I used a pickle jar)

Old T-shirt

A piece of vellum (long and wide enough to wrap around the jar)

Tools: Chalk or vanishing ink pen, tape measure, sharp scissors, sewing machine, thread

How it’s done:

1. Press the t-shirt. Cut off the bottom hem and cut open the seams to separate the front and back panels.

2. To find the vase covering’s width, lay the jar on the fabric and mark it. You might want to reveal some of the jar above and below the fabric.

3. To find the length of the covering, use the tape measure to measure the circumference of the jar, then mark that length plus 2″ on your fabric. Cut along the lines so you end up with a rectangular covering of your desired width and length.

4. Cut the vellum so it’s about an inch or so inch shorter and just a little bit narrower than the fabric.

5. With a straight stitch, stitch the vellum and fabric together along both long sides. (A zigzag stitch would also look cute.)

6. Now, the fun part. Lower the presser foot pressure, or drop your feed dogs (practice on scrap first if you’re nervous about this–or just remember, this is a CROOKED heart vase). Using straight stitch and straight stretch stitch, doodle a heart with an open center. Go around a few times. Add more hearts if you feel like it.

7. Add a bunch of wavy, meandering lines, perhaps all the while thinking of the many ups and downs that you and your love have been through together. Leave the last inch or two on either end unembellished.

8. With your sharp little scissors, carefully insert the tip of a blade through the fabric in the middle of the heart, being sure not to pierce the vellum. Cut away the fabric within your stitched heart outline. Repeat this in a few other spots around the covering to cut away some shapes and allow light to flow through.

9. Wrap the covering snugly around the jar. Trim away any excess fabric and sew a seam up the back, or just attach it to the jar with double stick tape. You’re done.

Vase by night = votive: