April 16, 2020

Sewing a Mini Felt Pillow

This is a perfect project for little hands that are just beginning to learn how to sew! It makes a great tiny pillow for toys or a cute keepsake!

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Supplies:

small piece of felt
embroidery thread and needle
pins
small amount of stuffing, or even fabric scraps or tissue if you don’t have any stuffing!
Pilot Frixion pen, fabric marker, or pencil

Instructions:

*Note: Don’t forget about the suggested modification for knotting the thread! For a review of how to do this, see the Teaching Hand Sewing to Littles post.

1. Cut two heart shapes out of the felt. (So that both hearts are even, you can draw one heart on the felt, cut it out, then use that cut out heart as a pattern to trace the second one.) With the marking tool of your choice, make little dots around the edges of one of the hearts. Try to make sure they are evenly spaced and not to close or too far away from the edge.

2. Pin the two heart shapes together. This will help them to not shift apart as you are sewing!

3. Parents: you will likely need to get the thread started for your child (at least the first few times!) Start from the inside and go down through to the back so that the knot will be hidden in between the two felt hearts. Then bring the needle down through the top on the nearest dot all the way through both layers.

4. Have the child continue around the heart, going down on each dot.

**Note: When your child starts to run low on thread, before it gets too short, you will need to knot it for them (at least at first!) so that their stitches don’t come out once you cut the thread.

This is how you knot the thread:

Open up the two layers and put the needle through the last stitch. Pull it all the way through.

Go back through that stitch again, but this time don’t pull it all the way through. Before you pull it all the way, you will see a little loop – go through that loop with the needle to make the first tie. Do the same thing one more time to make a second knot. (You need that second knot – picture shoelaces…if you tie it once, it won’t hold together very long, if at all – you have to tie it twice to make a knot that stays!)

And now you can cut your thread! Tuck the ends in between the felt layers.

You can now start a new thread for your child just like you did at the beginning so they can continue around the rest of the heart – BUT – make sure to leave a 1-2 inch hole for stuffing. (You don’t need to knot and cut your thread before you stuff – you can stuff the heart and then just continue on with your thread to the end!)

5. Stuff the pillow!

6. Continue sewing to close the hole.

Parents: You may need to finish the thread and knot it for your child at the end to prevent the stitches from falling out. You do it the same way you did it if you had to start a new thread earlier:

Go down through a dot as if you were making another stitch, but don’t pull it through all the way. Go through the loop and then pull it tight to make the knot. Do this one more time.

Cut your thread and tuck it in between the layers and your mini felt pillow is completed!!!