sleeping pillow

I had this idea to get Miss E a big pillow (14 x 28) and then sew a cover for it that included pockets that she could stash things and create little sleeping bag-like arrangements for her various animals and ponies. It took about 2 1/2 hours and really wasn’t that hard since it was all simple straight stitching.

bed3

I cut two pieces of 16 x 30 fabric (approximately)  and then I took the piece to be on the front and used it to start pinning pockets of various fabrics to. I didn’t measure- just eyeballed and pinned. Once I was happy with my choices I took them all off and sewed the tops (folded over once so it won’t frey). Then I arranged and sewed the overlapping ones (this took some thinking) so that all the pockets would be fully open on the pillow, but also sewn down good.

bed2

Then piece by piece I stitched (sides and bottoms- as needed) to the pillow itself. you can see that on the edges of some I used pinking shears instead of folding edge under. Once done, I put inside-out with the other 16×30 piece of fabric and sewed 3 sides together along marks I made to help me get the right finished size. Then I turned it right side out, put it over the pillow, and stitched (with machine- yes a little sloppy of me) the final side closed. To do this I just folded the raw ends under and then stitched. Not quite as pretty as it could have been- but it totally works. (and was much faster than hand sewing!)

bed1

I couldn’t help myself- I already gave it to her. My reasoning? She’s going to get lots of Christmas presents so it’d be more apreciated now.

and yes, she LOVES it!!

20 thoughts on “sleeping pillow”

  1. Very cute! My daughter has been wanting a big pillow (I have one that she’s constantly trying to steal) so I might just have to steal your idea. It would be great if she had a place to stash her pj’s each day!

  3. How sweet, I would have loved to have something like that when I was younger. I even think my boys would like something like that, of course, not pink colors. My youngest could put his dinosaurs, cars, etc. in the pockets. TFS!

  8. Very cute! I’ll bet she does love it and it’s hard to keep stuff like that from them!

    I wanted to do a ?? pocket organizer that slips under the mattress and then hangs down the side of the bed. It would have pockets for books,dolls, remotes, lotion or whatever. Glasses too! Chloe (dd) has been falling asleep while reading with her glasses on!

    I just haven’t had the time to do it . Would be fairly simple. A long piece like a table runner and then figure out what would be the hanging part and sew different pockets on. hmmm…. maybe during Christmas break!

    Merry Christmas May.

  10. May,
    You sound like such a good mother. I can only hope that when or if the time is right I can be as good as you. How lucky your girls are. Have a very merry christmas.

  13. That is adorable and I wonder what my DH would think in some ended up on my bed okay maybe for our godkids. . .hmmmmmm

    Thanks so much for sharing May.

  15. This is such a cute idea! We must be on the same wavelength here…I just made some little pillows with that owl fabric. It is so cute!

  16. What a cute idea! Little girls just love all these little toys & having a place to stash them is perfect. I remember when my niece was that age she carried a bag everywhere she went. Inside she had all of her “little” treasures. No matter where she went, she had to have a bag….for years we called her “the bag lady” cause she was never without one. She would have loved the pillow with pockets too!

Comments are closed.