Emoji Pillows

I do love a simple project and these pillows fall into the simple project category. If you are wanting an easy gift to make for Christmas this year these pillows are perfect.

There are a few YouTube videos on how to make emoji pillows but I used the free Patterns For Pirates pattern as my inspiration. You purchase the pattern by adding it to your cart from their shop but you don’t actually pay anything during checkout. I “purchased” the pattern and had thought I’d printed it out but when it came to making it I couldn’t find it so I’m thinking I never printed it. This is one toy which you don’t really need to print the pattern, I just traced around a dinner plate for the circles. I’ll discuss the facial features a little later. The pattern doesn’t come with instructions but there is a tutorial on how to make it here. If you are new to toy making the tutorial is good to follow, if you are a seasoned toy maker like myself you’ll easily work out how to make it.

The pattern has the pieces for the heart face but the crazy face I just made up myself. I found myself studying emojis on my phone to see how it was. For the hearts and white eye circles I used my Sizzix Big Shot to cut the pieces from scraps of wool felt. The mouth shape I drew out on a piece of trace and toile. I made the crazy mouth a little smaller than the mouths on the heart pillow. In my “study” I saw that the mouth is smaller on the crazy emoji. For the tongue and black pupils I just free hand cut shapes from wool felt scraps. I attached all the features on by hand. Originally I used a running stitch but after the first face was done I didn’t like it so I unpicked it all and used a blanket stitch instead. I used a double strand of embroidery floss as my thread.

To stuff these I used a mixture of hobby fill and leftover yarn scraps. One thing I did learn is that if you stuff a pillow/toy with something other than hobby fill such as threads or yarn either make sure the fabric you are stuffing is dark or that you place threads/yarn in the centre and not near the fabric otherwise you will see them. I placed a heap of scraps in before the hobby fill then had to shift them into the centre of the pillow as you could see them through the yellow. When you only have about a 1″ gap open to stuff your item it can be very tricky shifting things around inside.

These will become 2 Christmas gifts for this year and one birthday gift for next year. Finishing these in July is the earliest I’ve ever made a gift for the next year. It was easy to make an extra one at the time of making these as everything I needed was already out right in front of me. Sadly this Christmas will be the last time I make gifts for 2 of these kids. The kids are getting a little bit older now. Sewing for girls is easier as you can keep doing bags of some description, boys are tricker. They get to an age where they are out growing soft toys and there is only so many pencil cases you can make for them. They will get presents in the form of gift vouchers most likely from now on as it isn’t fair to make for one child and not the other. I’m going to miss making gifts for them as I have had a lot of fun over the years making their stuff but it is time to stop. I’ll still be making gifts but that is 4 less gifts a year I’ll be making.

Cassiy