Simple to Sew Small Pillows ~ Activities for Kids

How is your summer going thus far? Have you found some great activities for kids? I have managed to find  activities for the kids and I to do together. It has been nice to have time with them and have some fun together.

Last week, we made these pillows that were intended for our doll beds, but since my girls are really loving playing with Beanie Boos right now, the pillows became pet beds.

The pillows are really simple to make. My girls each made two of their own pillows. I did do the final closure sewing because they didn’t want to, though they easily could have.

This is only one idea in my series of Real Summer of Fun activities. The activities are designed to be simple and inexpensive things we can do with our kids to make this a summer of real fun for everyone.

Let my daughters show you how to make some cute little pillows. 

Supplies:

• Fabric
• Thread
• Scissors
• Pins
• Iron
• Poly-Fil (affiliate link)

You will start by cutting out 2 pieces of fabric. We had 3 different sizes of pillows. Our cuts were 11″ x 6.5″, 9″ x 6″, and 9″ x 5″.  All of them allowed for a 1″ seam, which I think makes it really easy for the kids to sew.

Pin the right sides(or patterned sides) of the fabric together and sew. Leave about a 2″ opening in the middle at the bottom to allow you to turn the pillow right side out and stuff the pillow.

Don’t forget that your Beanie Boos can help with the sewing as well. 😉

Turn your pillow right side out and iron.

Stuff the pillow with the Poly-Fil (affiliate link). Again, don’t forget that your Beanie Boo can totally help! Cuteness!

We made two different styles of pillows.

For either style pillow, it is easiest to me to close them on the machine. To do that, once you have the pillow stuffed as full as you want it, carefully pin close your opening and the whole bottom of the pillow. Then go back and wiggle the stuffing down so that you can add a second row of pins. This will give room for the presser food of the machine.

Sew the pillow closed using the width of the presser foot as your seam allownace. Place the needle in the right position (if you machine can move needle positions). With this pillow type, you are only sewing the bottom of the pillow.

If you want to go for a slightly fancier pillow. Pin the opening closed and pin two rows of pins all the way around the pillow. Sew using the presser foot as the width of your seam. This time, leave the needle in the middle position. You will sew around the entire pillow, rather than just the bottom portion.

You can see the different sizes of pillows as well as the different styles of closures. The polka dot fabric pillow has been sewn all the way around and ends up looking more like a pillow sham. Cuteness!

Our pillows were intended for our American Girl Doll bedding to go with our new bunk beds. I have made the mattress and the reversible sheets and now we have pillows. I’ve made the comforters as well, but I haven’t blogged about those yet. I will get you those next month.

As is what kids often do, my girls decided to change things up and use their pillows for their Beanie Boos. They are the perfect size! The Beanie Boos are so cute!

Whether they get used for dolls or Beanie Boos, this is a great project for the kids to do. It is some very simple sewing that could make a great first time sewing project. Especially because they end up with something fun for their Beanie Boos.

You could easily change the size of the pillow to accommodate a different size stuffed animal or doll. Easy and fun and when they are done, they have something new to play with. Double activities! Yay!

What are your favorite sewing projects that are great activities for kids?

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