Heart Motif is an ever popular motif as the symbol of romantic love and you can find these motifs in different shapes and sizes in textiles. But have you wondered at its familiar lobed /scalloped shape? I did and it stumped me to learn about its origin. In my mind it was closely associated with the human heart. The heart motif does have a passing resemblance to the human heart it represents, but do you know that it is not supposed to. What I mean is that, according to several studies, the heart motif was drawn after the Ivy leaf, because according to ancient greek and roman lore, the ivy was special to the God of ecstasy, Dionysus. Another theory pegs the shape to the seed of a plant Silphium, which was used as a magic medicinal plant.The heart shaped seed pod had even appeared on the ancient coins of the time – it is ditto the heart motif as we know it today.
Anyway, heart motif is the symbol you associate with romantic love and your heart does go racing when in love. Love and the heart motif seems to have been linked together by close association.
There is more than one way to decorate a heart motif on your clothes and other sewing projects. The challenge is to do it tastefully.
With hand embroidery you have the choice to do the easiest stitches to decorate the heart shape or go as complicated as you want. The above heart shape is filled with simple straight stitches.
You can just outline the heart for a simple look. I tried it by hand as well as the machine, because this design is a one pass stitching one.
This is my favourite method of embroidering a heart. Stitching the heart the minimalist’s way, with just fewer straight stitches.
In this method, you make a one pass stitching heart with just vertical lines. You will have to draw the lines first and stitch over it in one pass.
In machine embroidery filling the heart shape with any fill stitch is one of the prettiest.
It can be as easy as you want or as complex as you want.
You can also outline the heart with simple satin stitches or other border stitches. You can do the satin stitch around the heart as I did with the heart applique on a tshirt.
But the challenge is near the point. It is a little difficult to make thin points perfectly. I even found this challenging on the embroidery machine. But then found a work around.
Outline heart shapes can be used in applique and also to fill with monograms.
Hand embroidery is the cutest for stitching the heart.
You can fill the heart with almost all of your favourite hand embroidery stitches. I tried the blanket stitch here on tiny heart motif.
Use other knot stitches inside the heart shape like the french knots.
Tiny all over motifs of hearts are done with just the outline. A small tiny heart motif can be done this way. First draw the tiny motifs on the fabric.
Then make a stitch across one half of the heart shape. Anchor the stitch by taking the needle over the stitch made and to the back,
Do the same for the other side
Checkout the video if you want a more visual tutorial.
This is how it will look
If you want a more 3-d heart, you either will have to use applique or try this method. It is as simple as stitching the motif twice.
First you stitch inside the heart across
and then stitch over it.
After stitching the heart, make an outline stitch to define the heart shape.
Another favourite of mine is to print the motifs on fabric. Checkout this post on printing fabric on your inkjet home printer.
If you are wondering how you will draw the heart shape in the first place, that too symmetrical, especially the large ones. Here is a hack I use.
Draw the half of the heart shape on the fabric with Chalk.
Then press to the other side. The chalk will transfer the marking to the other side of fabric.
(If you are still wondering stories behind the romantic scalloped shape of the heart motif go read these books – The Shape of the heart- Elsevier & The Amorous Heart: An Unconventional History of Love)
