Stealing our Hearty!

Hearty got his name a long, long time ago because he used to have little pink hearts on him. But over the years they faded almost all away. He is so loved and had been patched and sewn so many times that it was hard to tell what he actually looked like!

Our job was to restore Hearty where we could, patch him where we needed, and make sure he was loved the whole time he was away from his Owner!

The first step was to take off the big patches that bound him up. He used to have eyelet lace...

I'm here! On the bottom!

so the next stop was to Mood Fabrics to try to match the old lace to some new!

We we repair loveys we never cut throw any piece away - even old patches! For Hearty we turned the old patches into bias tape and sewed in the new lace. We then hand-stitched the tape over the existing edges to protect them.

Next was Hearty's insides. He was so thin that we needed to insert a bit of thin quilt batting to make him strong and give us something to sew patches through.

Patching time! We did two things. First, we took thread and wove small patches on threadbare areas. Very delicate!

Next we added some namesake heart patches out of pink satin. We added a bit of fluff to make them extra cuddly. Tucked inside the big patch is the swatch of the old eyelet lace we used at the store!

After some final stitches hearty was ready to return home.

We miss you already, Hearty! You're a really wonderful lovey!