How-to: Valentine Muppets Applique

This past Christmas was my husband’s and my first together. This is a tutorial for how to make the gift I made for him, inspired by the theme song to the new Muppet movie…

The song and the movie are so darn cute and lovable that my husband and I were cuddling and singing that song for weeks after seeing the movie. What could have made a better first-married-Christmas-together gift than something just as sweet? This project would also make an amazing Valentine’s gift for any significant other in your life! It took me about 15 or 20 hours to make, but that was mostly because I kept ripping out the lettering to get it just right. I wanted to make sure to share this with at least a couple weeks left before V-day in case anyone out there wants to make one of their own. <3

Supplies

12″ embroidery hoop

cross stitch canvas (any sturdy fabric will do, though)

yarn

thread that color-coordinates with the yarn you chose

scraps of felt in lime green and red

crappy plastic pearl necklace

scissors

pencil

Directions

Mount your cross stitch canvas in your embroidery hoop. Lightly write the phrase “Life’s a happy song” along the  top of your hoop in pencil directly on the canvas. Then lightly write “when there’s someone by your side to sing along.” along the bottom.

The technique I used to attach the yarn to the canvas for the lettering is called couching. This is one of the first couching projects I’ve ever done and I’m totally hooked. But since this is my first project, I’m going to defer to the awesome embroidery blog feeling stitchy for a gorgeous (seriously, I need to learn to take photos like this!) tutorial on couching:

Basically, couching is sewing yarn to fabric. I prefer it to certain types of embroidery because I can use my own handwriting and easily make my projects more personal. :)

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Once all the lettering is done, you need to erase any visible pencil lines that might remain. Next, you’ll need to grab some felt. Cut two teeny tiny hearts out and hand applique them to the canvas between the “Life’s a happy song” and “when there’s someone by your side to sing along.” lyrics.

Cut out a piece of the lime green felt in the shape of Kermit’s collar. Six points does the trick, in my opinion.  Then, applique the collar to the canvas using the same applique style as with the tiny hearts.

Next, grab the pearl necklace and cut it to a length short enough to lay on your fabric in a complete loop. Sew it onto the fabric in enough places to keep its shape when hanging. Secure the ends next to each other so it looks like Miss Piggy’s signature pearl strand, all in one piece.

After that, trim excess canvas from behind the embroidery hoop, and you’re done! My husband and I have this cute thing proudly displayed in our living room, and it always makes me smile when I look at it. If you make one of these for yourself or your bf/gf, let me know! I’d loooove to see it.