This lovely heart-felted scarf makes a wonderful and warm Valentine's Day gift.

Tools and Materials
Washer and dryer
Laundry detergent
Scissors
Sewing pins
Discarded 100 percent wool sweaters in a variety of colors
Yarn in a complementary color
Hand-sewing needle with an eye large enough to thread yarn
Heart template


Heart-Felted Scarf How-To
1. Shrink and felt sweaters: Wash the sweaters in a washing machine with plenty of detergent and hot water. Some sweaters may require several washings to get the best result. Dry in clothes dryer on high heat.

2. Download and print heart template; cut out heart shape.

3. Pin heart template to a felted sweater and cut around the shape.

4. Repeat, cutting hearts from the felted sweater material, until you have 28 hearts -- enough to make a 5 1/2-foot scarf.

5. On a flat surface, lay down 14 of the hearts in a column, with 2 inches between each heart. The hearts should all point in the same direction and vary in color.

6. With the remaining 14 hearts, layer another column on top of the first, starting 2 inches above the bottom of the first column. The hearts in the top column should overlap the hearts in the bottom column, creating a continuous scarf.

7. When you are happy with the layout of your scarf, secure it by pinning the hearts together where they overlap.

8. With yarn threaded on a needle and knotted at one end, hand-sew an X with diagonal stitches where the first heart overlaps the second. Start from between the 2 hearts, bringing the needle up through only one of the hearts, to hide the starting knot between them. To create an X that is seen from both sides of the scarf, pass the needle between the 2 hearts when it is necessary to make a stitch that is not diagonal. Tie off yarn between the 2 hearts to hide the ends.

9. Repeat the X stitches at every overlap until the scarf is completed.

Resources
Special thanks to Betz White for sharing the idea for this felted Good Thing. For more fabulous felted crafts, check out Betz's book, "Warm Fuzzies: 30 Sweet Felted Projects," or the Teacup Pincushion she made on an earlier episode of "The Martha Stewart Show."