Sewing a Pillow

With little more than some fabric, stuffing, your new straight-line sewing skills and your machine, you can make your own pillow.

Begin by cutting your fabric to whatever size you need. The pillow pictured is actually a cushion I made for my yard swing, but you could make a travel pillow, large body pillow or a throw pillow as well.

Place your fabric panels with the right-sides (the sides that will be seen on the outside) facing each other. Pin around your edges and begin sewing leaving a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Turn at each corner by sinking the needle into the fabric and lifting the presser foot before you turn. Stitch the entire length of three of the sides and continue on the fourth side stopping and back stitching about 4 inches from the corner that you started at.

Reach in the opening and turn the pillow right-side-out. Use a pencil, chopstick or dowel rod to push the corners out to a point. Then, you can begin stuffing your pillow with polyester filling. Do not ball the stuffing up. Leaving it loose will keep your pillow from being lumpy when finished.

When you've stuffed the pillow to your liking, you can fold the edges of the opening inside to match up with the seam allowance you used for sewing. Now, you can either sew the opening shut by hand or machine. The hand-sewing method gives your pillow a more finished and professional look.

This would be a great craft for children since it is so simple. Older kids can sew while younger ones can turn them out and stuff them. Kids really love making small pillows they can tote around with them or use to decorate their rooms. You can make them for teacher gifts with holiday patterns and some of Matthew's classmates even made tiny pillows (about 5 x 5 inches) to sell at their 4th grade stores last year.