Twinkie Chan What I love most about Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day, or Palentine’s Day, is the aesthetic. I love vintage candy boxes, I love wearing pink and red, and I love heart-shaped everything. I crocheted tons of hearts to show you 5 Valentine’s Day gift ideas that you can make with just one crochet heart pattern. I’m sure you’ll be able to think of way more than 5 uses for this versatile cutie.
If you’re new to crochet, you can take some beginner crochet classes on Creativebug: Beginner Crochet 1 with Cal Patch, How to Crochet with Carla Scott, or Crochet Sampler: A Daily Practice, with me.
If you’re already familiar with crocheting in the round, grab beloved yarns from your stash and get ready to have lots of fun using a variety of stitches.
Abbreviations in U.S. Terms
ch(s): chain(s)
hdc: half double crochet
htr: half triple crochet
dc: double crochet
rnd(s): round(s)
sc: single crochet
sk: skip
sl st: slip stitch
tr: triple crochet
( ): work everything in the parenthesis into the next stitch
[ ]: work everything in the bracket the number of times indicated
Crochet Heart Pattern
Approximate size: 4.5 inches x 4.5 inches
Materials:
- Worsted weight yarn
- An I-9 / 5.5 mm crochet hook, or whatever hook you like best for worsted weight yarn
- Yarn or tapestry needle
- Scissors
Pattern:
Make magic circle, or ch 3 and sl st to 1st ch to form a loop.
Rnd 1: Ch 2 and work 10 hdc into loop. Sl st to 1st hdc to join. (10)
Rnd 2: Ch 2 and work 2 hdc into each hdc around. Sl st to 1st hdc to join. (20)
Rnd 3: Ch 2 and work [2 hdc in the next stitch, 1 hdc in the next stitch] 10 times around. Sl st to 1st hdc to join. (30)
Rnd 4: (you may want to follow the chart below) sk 2, (6 tr), (3 tr), 2 htr evenly, dc, (2 hdc), 4 sc evenly, hdc, (2 hdc), dc, (2 hdc), hdc, 4 sc evenly, (2 hdc), dc, 2 htr evenly, (3 tr), (6 tr), sk 2, sl st. Break off and weave in all ends.
Now that you know how to crochet a heart, it’s time to think of all the fun ways to use it.
1. Valentine’s Day Cards
Extra materials:
- Crochet heart
- Card stock cut to size or blank greeting cards
- Pen or pencil
- Tacky Glue
- A brush for glue
- Scissors for paper
For the pink card on the left, I simply applied Tacky Glue to the back of the crochet heart, spread it around a little with a brush (mostly to avoid any rippling on the paper due to moisture from thick globs of glue), and placed the heart on the card. You can put a hardcover book or two on top of the heart to help press it onto the card as the glue dries. Crocheting a cute appliqué for a handmade card is one of my favorite quick crafts.
For the card on the right, trace your crochet heart onto a piece of card stock and then cut out the heart shape. I trim my paper heart so that it’s slightly smaller than the crochet heart and fits well on the back of the heart without showing on the front.
I then write my message on the heart-shaped card, because it’s easier to do so now than later.
Before gluing, I crocheted a simple lace border around the heart first. This is definitely optional. I used a contrasting color, but you could use the same color as well. I do suggest going down a hook size or two for a slightly finer lace.
Start by joining your new yarn at the top and center of the heart.
[Ch 4 and sl st into next st] 2 times. Then repeat [ch 4, sk 1 st, sl st into next st] all the way around the heart until 1 stitch remains. Ch 4 and sl st into last st. Ch 4 and sl st into the same stitch you joined the yarn at the beginning of the round.
You can experiment with how many chains and how many stitches apart each sl st is for different looks.
Apply Tacky Glue to the back of the paper heart and spread it around with a brush. Place the paper heart onto the back of the crochet heart. Again, you can use the weight of a book to keep the two pieces in contact as the glue dries.
2. Crochet Heart Garland
Extra materials:
- Several crochet hearts. The theme of my garland was conversation heart candies, so I crocheted 7 hearts in pastel colors.
- Extra yarn or string to hang the hearts
- Optional: felt for cutting out letter and fabric glue for attaching letters to hearts
If you want to embellish your hearts with lettering, I always like cutting felt shapes or letters and attaching them with glue. My favorite is FabriTac because it’s a washable fabric glue, but you could also use hot glue. I have a Creativebug class on my favorite glues for crochet projects called Glue 102: Working with Fibers.
To string your hearts into a garland, you can use your favorite method, whether it’s sewing each heart to a ribbon or string or using mini clothes pins. I use crochet chains and then attach each heart – working right to left to make sure the words were not backwards – with single crochet stitches on the top points of the heart. Here’s the exact pattern.
1. With white yarn and a G hook to create tight chains, ch 10 and sl st to 1st ch to form a loop. This will help you hang the garland more easily.
2. Continue to ch 30.
3. Take the final heart in your sequence (mine was the green “E”), with right side facing you, and work an sc into the top right of the heart. For me, this is the 4th tr from the center (it could be the 3rd tr for you). Ch 8. Work another sc into the top left of the heart, which for me, is also the 4th tr from the center. You may need to smush and pull and flatten everything out, but the chs across the top of the heart should run in a straight horizontal line, and it shouldn’t warp the heart in any way. If there is a sag, take away a ch or 2. If the heart is getting squished on top, add more chs.
4. Ch 15. Take the next heart in your sequence (mine was the purple “N”), with right side facing you, and work an sc in the top right of the heart, ch 8, sc in the top left of the heart.
Repeat Step 4 with all of your hearts.
5. After the last heart, ch 30. Ch 10 more and sl st to 10th ch from hook to form your hanging loop, and break off and weave in all ends.
3. Crochet Heart Plushie or Ornament
Materials:
- 2 crochet hearts
- An arm-length of matching yarn for seaming
- A small amount of Poly-fil stuffing
- Optional: any embellishments you’d like to add. I added plastic eyeballs on my pink plush to make a happy face.
It’s super easy to make a cute little heart-shaped crochet plush. Take two hearts and seam them together. If you want to add a face or words, you probably want to do this before seaming. I use a whip stitch, and I only seam together the 2 closest loops on each edge of the heart rather than all 4 loops of both layers. This is to avoid too much bulk in my seam.
Before completely sewing them together, lightly stuff with polyester stuffing. You don’t need a lot. Some of the stitches on the heart are quite long, and the stuffing will show through a lot if you add too much.
When you’ve finished seaming, you can weave in your ends.
If you’d like to create a hanging loop for your ornament, this is a great opportunity to use extra yarn from your seaming.
I also decided to add the lace border to the red heart plush, and I added the lace after seaming and stuffing using the same method as for the greeting card heart.
4. Crochet Heart Coasters
Playing with bigger yarn and a bigger crochet hook will give you a larger heart. I crocheted these coasters using a lovely yarn made out of printed cotton fabric by Knit Collage. You can see that I ran out of the red yarn and finished the heart with some chunky wool yarn. There are no rules. Use everything in your stash!
5. Crochet Heart Hair Clip or Brooch
Extra materials:
- For a flat heart: 1 crochet heart, felt, marking tool, Tacky Glue, hot glue gun, hair clip or pin back
- For a 3D heart: 2 crochet hearts, Poly-fil stuffing, hot glue gun, hair clip or pin back
If you use a lighter weight yarn and a smaller hook, you can make smaller hearts for hair clips or brooches. I used what I believe is a sock weight yarn for these rainbow hearts. This was honestly the only sock weight yarn that I own, and I’ve had it for years. I remember buying it because it reminded me of rainbow sprinkles, but I normally work with worsted weight so I never used this. What a fun opportunity to make something with it!
For the flat heart, simply trace your crochet heart shape onto a piece of felt, cut out the felt (again, I prefer the felt shape to be slightly smaller than the crochet heart), and use Tacky Glue to glue the felt to the back of the crochet heart. I use a hot glue gun to affix a metal hair clip or pin back to the felt backing. Some people prefer E6000. This is another spot where I’d suggest watching my Glue 102 class.
For the 3D heart, make a small plushie as above and then hot glue the hair clip or pin back to the back of the plushie. I decided to add some fuzzy yarn embellishment to the edge of mine. I crocheted a chain that was long enough to line the outside of the heart plushie, and then I sewed the chain on with a running stitch.
Don’t forget to tag me @twinkiechan and @creativebug on social media if you post a photo of your heart-shaped beauties!
For some non-crochet Valentine’s Day ideas from me, check out Make Friendship Bracelets which includes a special heart design, and also Make Resin Paperweights where you can encapsulate special messages, images, and treasures.