A few days ago my youngest daughter turned 5 years old. The evening before her birthday I sewed her a birthday dress. I used our pattern Olivia to sew this tunic. Olivia comes with pockets but I decided to make heart-shaped pockets instead, knowing she'd love them.

Here's how I made them!

1. Download, print and cut out your heart pattern.

2. Cut out 4 hearts in fabric (for two pockets). I used cotton jersey, same as for the tunic.

3. Place two hearts right sides together, and use clips or pins to keep them together.

Sew almost all round, with 5 mm seam allowance, but leave a gap of about 3 cm (a little over 1"). Sew with sewing machine. 

I used a walking foot to prevent the fabric from being stretched out as it's sewn.

4. Clip corners, into the seam allowance. 

5. Turn right sides out and press, preferably with a steam iron. 

6. Place the pockets on the right side of the front tunic. Make sure to place the pockets at the same height and center them, use a ruler. Place pins on the outsides of the pockets to be able to see their placement from the wrong side.

7. Remove the pockets and flip the front to the wrong side. Use a textile marker to mark the pocket's approximate placement, and then remove the pins.

Cut out two pieces of interfacing that are a bit larger than the pockets. 

Remove the pockets and iron the interfacing to the wrong side of the tunic. Use a fusible light-weight interfacing (it must be lighter than the fabric). I used an interfacing from Vlieseline called H200.

8. Back to the right side of the front. Place the hearts on the tunic's front piece. Check the placement again, and mark how high up on the pockets you want to sew them.

Use aqua glue marker to keep the pockets in place.

Topstitch the pockets to the front with a straight stitch or triple stretch stitch (sewing the gaps closed at the same time). I drew small white lines to mark where to start/stop sewing (see arrows). I do recommend to sew a bit higher up on the heart than I did, because the upper part of the pocket did fold a bit after she'd worn the tunic.

 

Ta-da!

Here's how it looked from the wrong side:

 

I hope you feel inspired to try out heart-shaped pockets on your own sewing projects! If you want to sew a tunic like I did, have a look at our Olivia pattern.