Show your drinks a little love with these punch needle heart coasters! Soft, colourful, and super cute, they’re the perfect blend of cozy and practical. This easy craft is a great way to try your hand at punch needle embroidery while creating something both functional and decorative.
Use your heart coasters to brighten up your coffee table, gift them to a friend as a handmade token of appreciation, or add them to your Valentine’s Day decor. However you use them, these coasters are sure to needle their way into your heart!
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How to Make a Punch Needle Heart Coaster
Materials:
- FREE Printable Heart Template
- Monk’s cloth
- Washable fabric marker
- Yarn (2 colours)
- Sewing thread (same colour as cloth)
- Self-adhesive felt
Equipment:
- Embroidery hoop (no-slip, 5 inch)
Watch the step-by-step video tutorial:
Instructions:
Step 1: Find what you need
- Gather your supplies and materials.
Step 2: Prepare the fabric
- Cut a piece of monk’s cloth that’s about 1 to 2 inches bigger than the embroidery hoop. Attach it to the hoop and make sure the cloth is very tight in the frame.
- Print one of our free heart templates (find the link in the materials list above) and cut out the heart shape of your choice.
- Place the heart template in the center of the hoop and trace around with a washable fabric marker or a pencil.
Step 3: Thread the punch needle
- Insert the wire needle threader into the punch needle so the loop or fold is at the bottom.
- Place the yarn through the loop at the bottom. This yarn will be the colour of the heart.
- Pull the needle threader up through the punch needle until the yarn appears.
- Use your fingers or the needle threader to push the end of the yarn through the hole in the top of the punch needle. It should go from the inside to the outside, coming out the flat side. Pull the yarn until there’s about 1 to 2 inches showing.
Step 4: Make the heart
- On the outline of the heart, push (or “punch”) the needle down through the fabric.
- Bring the needle back up and re-insert it next to your previous punch.
- Repeat until you’ve gone around the whole outside of the heart.
- Continue, filling in the inside of the heart. Work your way toward the center as you go around the heart shape. The current back of the fabric will be the top side of the coaster, so check it periodically to make sure your punches are nice and even and close together.
- Once the whole heart is filled in, pull the punch needle down the yarn and cut the yarn, leaving a couple of inches extra.
Step 5: Add the outside of the coaster
- Thread the punch needle with a complimentary colour (we chose white). Punch around the heart and work outward towards the embroidery hoop, filling it in. Cut off the yarn with a couple inches extra.
- This is what the punch needle should look like on the top side (currently, the back).
Step 6: Finish off and add a backing to the coaster
- Remove the fabric from the hoop and cut around the work, leaving 1 to 2 inches extra around the yarn-punched area.
- Make cuts from the outside of the fabric in toward the center, but don’t get too close to the yarn. This will make it easier to fold the fabric in.
- Thread a sewing needle with thread or embroidery floss to match the cloth (white, for us). Fold the fabric in towards the center and gather it together with a simple running stitch. Finish by tying the two thread ends together in a double knot.
- Trace the inside of the embroidery hoop onto the back of some adhesive felt.You can also use a cork backing for a really non-slip coaster.
- Cut the felt circle and remove the backing. Place the felt on the back of the coaster, covering the folded fabric.
- Your punch needle heart coaster is complete!
- Make more coasters in the same (or complementary!) colours to create a whole set of these adorable coasters!
Helpful Tips:
- When you’re needle punching, be sure that your needle goes all the way through the fabric with each punch. This creates consistent punches and an even finish for your final product.
- It’s important to always use the backing for the coaster. Without it, your work can easily come undone if one of the loose pieces of yarn gets pulled.
How can I tell if my fabric is tight enough to make my heart coaster?
In order for punch needling to work correctly, the fabric has to be pulled drum-tight. As you punch, it may start to loosen.
If you notice your punches aren’t sticking or are coming off the fabric, stop and pull the fabric from all sides of the embroidery hoop. You may have to tighten the fabric several times while working.
If you find the fabric is still not tight enough after adjusting it, your embroidery hoop may not be suitable for punch needling. It will still work for embroidery, though!
If you’re new to this type of craft, you may want to purchase a punch needling kit to start you off. That way, the embroidery hoop should definitely be compatible with punch needling. You can also look for a “no-slip hoop” if you already have other punch needle supplies.
Why does my yarn keep coming out of my punch needle heart coaster?
If your yarn is pulling out from the fabric as you work, there’s most likely too much tension on the yarn coming from your ball of yarn.
There needs to be slack between the punch needle and the ball of yarn, or else the yarn can easily be pulled out of the fabric. Be sure to pull a good amount of yarn from the ball and let it rest slack on your work surface.
Where can I find templates to make a punch needle heart?
There are 8 different heart outline types for you to choose from, with 34 different printable pages available. We used a 2-3/4 inch version of heart outline #1, found in the “Many Sizes” link.
What do I do if I make a mistake on my heart coasters?
If you make a mistake, just pull out the mistake. Then, fix your fabric by gently scratching it with your fingernail or the tip of the punch needle. This will help close the gaps in the fabric left by the punch needle so you can punch it again.
What size punch needle is best for worsted weight yarn?
A medium sized needle with a 2.5 mm to 4 mm diameter is generally recommended for worsted weight yarn. Our inexpensive punch needles don’t list sizes, though, so we needed to test the needle sizes and loop heights for ourselves.
There should be a small amount of resistance felt when you’re threading your needle. You’ll know your yarn is the right size for the needle if you feel just a little resistance as you thread it.
If it seems like there’s a lot of resistance, your needle is likely too small for your yarn. If you don’t feel any resistance, the needle is likely too large for your yarn size.
Punch needle heart coasters are the perfect mix of cute and useful! Whether they’re catching drips on your coffee table or stealing hearts as handmade gifts, they’re sure to make a lasting impression. Craft a set, and you’ll have everyone falling head over heels for your creativity!
Here’s even more DIY coaster ideas:
Our book Low-Mess Crafts for Kids is loaded with 72 fun and simple craft ideas for kids! The projects are fun, easy and most importantly low-mess, so the clean up is simple!
Where to buy:
You can purchase Low-Mess Crafts for Kids from Amazon, or wherever books are sold:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Books-A-Million | Indiebound | Amazon Canada
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