Creative articles about sewing

Make Your Own Scandinavian Woven Hearts – DIY Instructions (with free pattern)

Dear community,
in this blog post you can find easy instructions for making your own scandinavian woven hearts from leather remnants – perfect for Christmas and other festive events!

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

Hiding behind the 19th window is a Julehjerte (Danish), Julhjärta (Swedish), or Juletrekurv (Norwegian). This is what we call a Christmas heart and it is a beloved Scandinavian Christmas tree decoration. Just imagine, the oldest preserved hearts still around today were woven by famed author Hans Christian Anderson in the 1860s.

Traditionally, these Scandinavian hearts were simply made from two pieces of glossy paper (as in these instructions from Wiebke, offered in German language). This creates a small basket in which little sweets or small things for the Christmas tree can be placed.

Make Your Own Scandinavian Woven Hearts – DIY Instructions

In my entry, I will show you how to make precious Scandinavian woven hearts out of durable leather remnants. These hearts can be used, for example, as practical key chains or cute decorations for gifts of money. And to go with this, you will also get my sewing pattern as a free download for your own creative ideas.

Required materials:

  • Free pattern from “Selbermachen macht glücklich”: (download HERE)
  • Leather remnants approx. 19 x 5 cm in size and in 2 colors
  • Optional: BERNINA non-stick presser foot # 52

Free pattern for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich"

The pattern:

Print out the PDF pattern in its original size and use either the complete pattern (above) or the half pattern (middle right) if you are cutting out the material along the break.

Cut the pattern twice out of the desired material. Use different colors so that the contrast will be beautifully emphasized when woven. A seam allowance is not included and is not needed with leather remnants.

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy] 

How to weave the Scandinavian heart:

The weaving is shown step-by-step in the following images. I find that this kind of work is easiest to understand using images, since it is hard to explain in complex words. Once you do it yourself, you will see that it is very easy.

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]   

Stitching the upper opening:

Afterwards, the upper opening is stitched up close to the edge. When doing this step, you can use the Zigzag foot #52 with non-stick sole if you wish; it is particularly well-suited for working with leather because of its gliding sole.

DIY instructions for a Scandinavian heart from "Selbermachen macht glücklich" [DIY Creates Joy]

And there you have it! The Scandinavian heart made from leather remnants is complete. In addition to the possibilities of using this heart as a key chain and monetary gift decoration, you can also turn the robust leather hearts into a beautiful outdoor Christmas garland. The creative possibilities are endless!

I hope you have fun making these hearts and I wish you a wonderful Christmas season!

Lots of love,

Birgit

Make Your Own Scandinavian Woven Hearts – DIY Instructions (with free pattern)

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  • Donna Bos EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

    Could you make your blog printable? I like to look back on projects and can’t always find them again. A printable copy would help me.

    Thank you

    • Corinna Schreiber EditEditing comments on the BERNINA blog is only possible after logging in with a blog user account. Sign up now or create a user account if you do not have one yet.

      Dear Donna, thanks for asking. This tutorial is available as (html) blog post only. However, you can print it by simply pressing CTRL+P in your browser. This will open the printing dialogue. Alternatively, you can select the text and images with your mouse cursor, press CTRL+C to copy the content, paste it in a Word document (CTRL+V) and print the word document.

      Kind regards
      Corinna

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