Cost Effective(free) Valentine's Plushie

With Valentine's coming up, I've been looking through the 'ibles for valentines gifts, didn't find anything that suited my situation. So I figured I'd make a plushie for my lady friend. The middle heart was designed to be removable but I ran into some trouble. Look at Step 4 for mistakes.

Project cost: low: $0.00
high: Few $

Project time: low: 1:28:00
high: 5:33:00

Materials:

pencil
paper
thread
needle/sewing machine
scissors
desired fabric/old tshirt
stuffing/old pillow

Step 1: Making the Pattern

If you want to make this, before you start take a look at step 4 to see the mistakes I made.

Find heart shape or draw heart shape you like. Draw the big one, scale it down/or draw it smaller inside. Use some sort of string or usb cable to measure how long the sides will be. The side strips gives it the 3D shape. Make the side strips a few more cms longer just in case. I split them into two because I'm using a shirt not a big piece of fabric. Oh thats CM.

(3 mins)

Step 2: Cut Out Paper, Pin the Fabric, Cut.

1 big heart*
1 small heart
2 piece strips for outside big heart
2 piece strips for inside big heart
2 piece strips outside for small heart

(half to 1 hour, less if you have experience or don't pin needles to the bed, or misplace them)

*be careful when cutting hole to start cutting the inside heart, fold the material along the cutting line, else you cut into the heart and not on the line, if you do this use this one as the back, sew up the mistake with the same color thread, yes I did this...

Step 3: Sew, Flip Right Side Out, Stuff, Sew Close

Make sure on the big heart you stop sewing on pic 7/8. If you sew all the way then try to flip it, it doesn't work, so flip it early, then sew it up. I had to run thread from the divit on the top of the heart to the bottle to make it more heart shape. See step 4: Horrible mistakes I made.

(sewing: 30mins-4 hours)
(stuffing: 5 mins)
(sewing close: 5-10 mins)

Step 4: Horrible Mistakes I Made

This is my second plushie I've made, but the first one I used a pattern. This one I made myself. Here are the mistakes and ways to correct them. This will save you time and stress.

-Pattern: It was too round. When you need a sharp angle, like the divit on the top of a heart, you can't use the type of heart I used. The divit has to be a lot more sharp, else, its pretty damn flat. Also the bottle needs to be sharp. Without the thread I ran through the middle, this looked like a tomato of sorts. Originally I wanted the middle heart to be removable. Now, I'm sure someone will rip it out.

-Big heart: I found out you can flip it right side out leaving a little hole. Maybe I'm just stupid, but whenever you flipped it right side out, you'd pull and it'll take from the other side. Kinda like those slippery toys that when you squeeze, it jumps out of your hands. So I had to undo about 45 mins of sewing to fix the problem. I was 3 hours in at that time....Woke up this morning and figured a better way, sew the big heart but leave either the bottom or the top connections unsewn. Then you can flip the long tube, then sew, this will make it look a lot better

-Sewing techniques: I only posted the front side, meaning the good side. I know theres a way to like hide your stitches but I've been lazy to read up on it.

Step 5: Adding Value Process

Spray it with your cologne and combine the heart plushie with a dozen tissue roses(also sprayed with your cologne). I've used the roses and cologne and it worked. Your lady friend will take it home or put it in her car, when she comes back, the whole room/car smells like you. On the tissues you can mix it up with the pink/blue/yellow colors. Too lazy to do a full dozen tonight.