A stitched heart

Let me start by wishing you a very happy new year....welcome to 2026! Today I have a make to share with you which has been inspired by our Take 3 Challenge prompts for January. As always, I have picked the prompts at random from our 3 inspiration jars to give us a colour, theme and technique:

You can watch me pick the prompts here....I'm sure you will know that I wouldn't have chosen purple on purpose :)

I decided to make a stitched heart to reflect these 3 elements - I have dyed the fabric and stencilled the design before stitching the heart. Let me show you how....

I started by dying some plain calico fabric with acrylic inks - Quinacridone Magenta, Deep Violet (Liquitex) and Purple Lake (Daler Rowney). To do this I sprayed water and dropped inks in to a clear plastic box lid. I lay the fabric in to the lid and spritzed with more water, adding ink so that they blended and soaked through. I left the fabric in the lid overnight to dry.

You can add the colour much more intentionally if you want to create a more subtle effect. I spritzed a second piece of fabric with plenty of water and added the ink directly with a brush. It wicks out and blends on the damp cloth. Experiment with different amounts of water to get different effects.

I have used acrylic inks so that the colour sets before I add further stencilling on top. However, you can get this effect with watercolour paints or fabric paints. I am not planning on washing this decorative item so am not concerned about the colour being permanent.

Once the fabric was dry I stencilled over the top with acrylic paint. I have used our Noodle Soup and Wonky Hearts stencils on the fabric and applied the paint with a cosmetic sponge.

I drew around a MDF heart to create the shape and cut it out.

I placed the two sides back to back and stitched around the edge using embroidery floss. I stitched in a loop of sari ribbon to create the hanging.

Once the heart was stitched 3/4 of the way around, I added some wadding to give it some body before completing the stitched edge.

This is really easy to do and makes a nice piece of home decor. You can customise your plain fabrics with inks and stencils to match any colour scheme and transform it in to a lovely handmade gift with some simple slow stitching.

There are lots of directions that you can take the January challenge prompts in but hopefully this will inspire you to use your stencils with fabric! If you are looking for other ways to get the most out of your stencils remember to check out our 4 day free Stencils Unlocked course :)

I look forward to seeing your January makes!