How to Weave a Heart Shape Tapestry

Have you ever tried weaving? It’s a craft I haven’t really explored in depth but occasionally I like to experiment with new ideas and techniques. I was lucky enough to attend a weaving workshop a little while ago which taught me some basic tapestry weaving skills – read about it here – and since then I’ve had a few ideas for some experimental weaving projects.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be a fun challenge to try and weave a heart shape. I honestly didn’t know if it would turn out successfully, but I think I can chalk this up as a win.

This little  woven heart tapestry requires no special equipment, in fact I made a loom out of a paper plate. Next time I may try making a loom with stiffer cardboard as the paper plate was a bit bendy, but you can use whatever you have handy, that’s the beauty of this project.

Now that the heart shaped weave was a hit, I may have a go at some other shapes too.

I’d love you to give this project a try, it’s really easy once you get going and would be a great craft for older kids to try.

You will need:

• thick card or sturdy paper plate
• yarn
• tapestry needle
• pencil
• scissors
• quilting ruler with 0.5cm markings (or 1/4″ markings)

How to make a heart shaped loom:

1/ Draw a heart shape on a paper plate or piece of card. Draw a vertical line down the middle to help with aligning markings in step 2.

2/ Use a quilting ruler to mark 0.5cm (or 1/4″) increments around the heart. Move the ruler up and down along the central line and mark where it hits the heart shape.

3/ Cut out the heart shape and snip notches on each mark.

4/ Time to warp the loom. Leave a long yard tail and hook the yarn up and down over the notches to create vertical lines.

5/ When finished the back should look like this…

and the front should look like this…

How to weave a heart shape:

6/ Thread about 60cm of yarn onto a tapestry needle and start weaving from the center of the heart shape down to the bottom of the heart shape. Weave in and out of each warp (vertical) yarn and alternate the pattern on each row.

7/ When you reach the bottom edges step the weaving down to the next warp thread to start shaping the bottom of the heart. As the shape gets smaller take care not to pull the warp off the loom.

8/ Once the bottom half is done, work up to the top lobes. Work on one lobe at a time.

9/ Carefully remove weave from cardboard loom.

10/ Weave any loose ends in, make sure they are secure.

All Done! I’m so pleased at how it turned out.

Now the next question is what to do with my weaving? I think it would look great as a patch on a sweatshirt, or as a small mat like a mug rug.

Will you give this simple heart tapestry weave a try? What will you use it for?