Heart 'Sachets'

Been looking at some of my supplies and I had so many packs ofgold metallic rick rack, metallic braid and such and wanted to use that up in some way.  I decided to try doing decorated hearts with them, just as an idea and it was so quick and easy a project that I ended up doing two batches of 40 hearts.  

My basic pattern was a heart 4 1/2" long and almost 4" wide, this gave enough for a seam allowance all the way around.  I did a deep cut on the top so the indent and rounded tops weren't subtle. For color I wanted something vivid but appealing.  Not red.  I went with fushia felt for the top layer and for the backs a medium purple polar fleece.  

Everything got applied to the top piece first.  I had some of that red/fushia colored tiger/zebra striped fabric that was so big around Halloween, so I cut wedges of that about 2" wide at one end narrowing down to a point at the other. Laid that out on the felt at different angles, then laid the rick rack along one edge and sewed both down in one pass. Turned it and sewed the other edge.  Then took rick rack and angled it across the front of the heart at a random angle and sewed that down with another pass.  

I ended up with 3 to 5 'lines' of rick rack on the hearts, with one or two other applique fabrics applied (there was a white flower print on pink background that looked nice with the rest, done the same way) and once all the front faces of the hearts were finished I paired them up with the polar fleece backs and machine sewed around the edges. 

The indent at the top had to be carefully clipped so I'd get as deep down into it as needed. And the opening I left for turning/stuffing was low on one side.  They were all turned and stuffed.  Then the side seam closed.  They needed ONE more detail to really highlight the items so I pulled out my bead selection and used 8mm metallic plated gold beads, doing one per heart as a sort of glitter focus. It really upped the look a lot.

Mine I did as cat toys (I have an upcoming event in two weeks), but they would make good lavender sachet items, or even act as pin cushions, or hang a string on them and turn them into window suncatchers or as package decorations during Christmas. Even use them as Christmas ornaments.

The size was good, a bit large for a cat toy but they're pretty.  The size can be scaled down a bit though it would depend on the width of the rick rack.  

I like the final result. They look fancy enough to sell and are interesting enough to be used for different things.

OMG The Kitty Cash Response!

It's been tremendous!  I took a few packs along with me to a brunch and sold one immediately and had orders for 4 more. Someone I knew ordered 14 packs of the 'bills'.  And I was told to bring them to the Stitch & Bitch sewing meeting too.  Everyone who's seen them seems to love the idea.

The packs look great, with the tags on and the bills stacked inside.  I've got a box full of pre-done ones now and it makes me feel like some sort of drug dealer with all the piles.....  LOL!

I went back right away to JoAnn Fabrics and bought the rest of the bolt, which was now down to the last 4 yards.  Since I can get 100 bills off one yard of fabric this leaves me with 400 bills, which will make 100 packs.  Selling them for $5 each - hey!  It's a great return.  If I see more of this fabric I'll probably buy what's on the bolt.  

MONEY!!!

New Project!  The fabric store had a print come in that has US currency (bills) all over it. Not like the previous currency print where all the bills overlapped and none were separate enough to cut out.  THAT print has been out for a few years and I’ve made ‘money mice’ and a Cthulhu doll out of that one.

THIS print had single bills separated, on a black background with some back image bills underneath, but the main point is that each of the front side bills could be cut out individually.  Which I did.  I got one yard of the fabric and carefully cut around each, with a 1/8 – ¼” clearance.  The partial bills along the edges I saved for a future project.  I got a total of 100 individual bills, they’re about 20% smaller than the actual bills in real life.

The denominations broke down to these:

$1 bills -- 15 of them

$5  15 of them

$10  26 of them

$20  13 of them

$50  15 of them

$100  16 of them

I used green polar fleece for the backs and sewed around 3 sides, turned them right side out, put 1 tsp of catnip in each (only that much, I wanted these as flat as possible) and closed the open end.  Then I packed them into zip lock baggies, 4 bills to a bag, with random currency in each and am printing up the topper cards for the bags now.

Kitty Cash!  Non-sequential US currency bills for Kitty to spend on whatever purr-chase they want!  Total for the bills comes to a fictional $2,960.  Each baggie of cash will go for $5, so that’s $125 total sales.  The yard of fabric cost me $9.99 minus 40% on sale.  The green 3/4ths yard was $2.50 as a remnant 50% off.  Time from start to finish of the project was just under 3 hours of putzing (some of it – like the turning and catnip stuffing was done while watching a movie). 

I figure that’s a pretty good return on the materials cost.  All of them are going to Pennsic.