The Curious Case of How to Make a Crochet Heart Sweatshirt
On a random whim in mid January, I decided to remind myself of how to crochet a mini heart. I had made some a few years ago but realized I couldn’t remember how to make them as easily as I once could. I tracked down a helpful video that showed me step-by-step how to crochet mini hearts, & after making a handful of them, I thought the interest would subside & I would move onto something else - except I couldn’t stop making them.
The act itself of repeating the stitches in my mind became a sort of meditation (as evidenced in the video above!):
…create a magic circle, chain 2, 3 treble crochet in the magic circle, 3 double crochet in the magic circle, chain 1, 1 treble crochet in the magic circle, chain 1, 3 double crochet in the magic circle, 3 treble crochet in the magic circle, chain 2, slip stitch in the magic circle, chain 1, cut yarn, pull tight, close magic circle, work loose ends into the heart using a darning needle, & cut yarn…
Crocheting mini hearts became a favorite activity to do while waiting during afternoon carpool or rewatching Ted Lasso for the 4th time, to the extent that after a week or so, I had almost 60 hearts without any idea how I would use them next. After posting some of my hearts to my Instagram stories, I got a few suggestions for ideas, one of which included using them to make a sweatshirt!
Materials I used for this project:
red yarn
crochet hook
scissors
darning needle (to weave the loose ends of the yarn into the hearts)
red embroidery floss - I used DMC 817
embroidery needle
I tracked down an extremely pink sweatshirt from Michael’s & some red 6 strand embroidery floss that matched the red crochet hearts I made. I actually ordered two pink sweatshirts - the one linked above is the one I used in this project & shown in the photos, but the second one I ordered I like SO much more. It’s a lot softer & feels like better quality. I decided to keep it for a possible later project!
Before stitching on the hearts, I planned out where I would like to place them & settled on a slightly imperfect brick pattern repeat. I didn’t want the end result to look too uniform - more of a perfectly imperfect handmade result. I started the design at the top near the collar & used a whip stitch to hand sew them on. Copy & paste a dozen more times & it’s done!
I couldn’t decide while making it, whether I should stop for good at this point or continue on & add hearts to the sleeves & back. I decided in the end to take a pause here for now & will revisit again if I still feel strongly about having hearts all over.
The video above is a quick montage of how it all came together :)
For a point of reference, I used a size Medium sweatshirt & ended up needing 13 crochet hearts for my design. I also used some of my leftover hearts to tie onto my daughter’s class valentines (if you’re looking for other ideas!).