Monster Pillow for Tooth Fairy or Just of Fun

My one son has lost 3 baby teeth so far and I think 1 made it under his pillow.  He seems to think it's a bad thing to loose his teeth.  We bought and read books to him about loosing teeth and talked to him about it and he has an older brother who's lost teeth and gotten money for it.  So I don't understand why he threw his latest lost tooth in the trash and didn't even tell us he had lost it.  It wasn't until my husband noticed and asked when he had lost it.  I didn't know either but I had remembered him throwing something away at breakfast the other morning saying "eeewww, something hard." When we asked him when he lost his tooth he burst into tears saying it was at breakfast the other morning.  We told him it's not a bad thing and he could leave a note for the tooth fairy, but he didn't want to do that either.  

So I was thinking maybe he's afraid of the tooth fairy coming in his room and going under his pillow.  And I thought I'd make him a special pillow he could put his lost tooth in and he can set it next to his bed, on his bed or next to his door if he wanted.   Whatever the reason for him not being excited about loosing teeth and throwing them away... hopefully a cute monster pillow will help!

I looked on Pinterest and wasn't 100% in love with any of them, so I drew up my own.  I had some 16" pillow forms in the attic I got out and thought I would use one of them.  I also just used some fabric I already had.  I used felt for the eyes and teeth and that minky stuff (I think that's what people call it) for the horns and the back.

For the teeth I left one side open for a pocket to put a tooth and where the Tooth Fairy can leave the money.

I like multi functional things.  If the pillow was just for teeth then soon he'll be done with it.  I wanted it to also be for other stuff and get more use out if.  So for the mouth I put a zipper and I overlapped the bottom fabric to cover the teeth so it would be softer if the face part is laid against.  I sewed another fabric to the top piece to create a big pocket, the size of the pillow.  You can put books or whatever you'd like in there.

I scanned in my drawing and then touched it up a bit.  When I would do my own quilts, I drew up those as well, colored them in and wrote measurements.  I guess I'm a bit of a nerd, I have to draw out my plans or use ones with measurements and stuff already.  But it seems I often change plans of someones else's too.  In junior high I took a mechanical drawing class and I loved it!  I felt like I was back in that class drawing the teeth, going over 1.5" and up 5"...  LOL!  It was fun, maybe that's why I drew out a lot of my own quilt designs too, I enjoy it.  Anyway here is my drawing after I touched it up in Photoshop...

 I also made a pattern for the eyes, teeth and horns.  Hopefully you can right click it, save it to your computer and then print it out.  You cannot print it with a border if you want it as big as I did mine.  The patterns go right to the edge of the paper.  For the horns I used the teeth pattern, but put about a 1/2" border around it.  Using your cutting ruler and mat, put the half inch line of your ruler on the edge of your pattern and cut.  Hmmm... sorry maybe I should have taken a picture of that.

What you'll need... 

You will need two 17" squares one for the back piece (I use that soft minky stuff) and one for the piece you'll put under the top to make the big pocket. So you could just use a fat quarter for these pieces.

For the face you'll need to cut 17"x 12.5"

For the mouth piece you'll need to cut 17" x 7" (I cut it 17" x 7.5" and ended up trimming 1/2" off, always better to be safe then sorry.)

For the face and mouth pieces you could also use fat quarters, or buy 1/2 yard cuts of fabric, depending on the direction of the pattern and how you want the direction of the pattern to go.

I had the felt on hand, but if you're going out to buy it you can just buy 1/4 of a yard, the biggest piece is 6" in diameter.  Or you could use the felt sheets.  Don't forget you will need to cut 2 of each on the pattern.  Then another set of the triangles for the horns, but I did not use felt for the horns.

You don't have to use felt, I chose it because it didn't fray.  But because I had the cheap felt, it pilled up after my son threw the pillow all around and played with it.  I'm going to try the premium felt for the next one and see if that's better.  You can use any fabric you want.  If you don't want it to fray and don't want to use felt, you can use that minky stuff or fleece too.

A 16" pillow form.

You will need 2 zippers, a regular zipper for the mouth, I had to buy an 18" one.  And a zipper for the pillow itself.  I used an 12-14" invisible zipper.  You can hand sew the pillow shut if you choose, but I find it easier to sew in a zipper.  Also you can take it off for cleaning and repairs to the pillow.

And you will need all the basic sewing stuff... machine, pins, thread, etc.

Now how to make the Monster Pillow...

So first step... Cut those pieces from the fabric for your pillow as I mentioned above.

Then cut out your pattern pieces, I did mine on card stock so I can use them several times.  I have 3 kids, so I figured I'd be making at least 3 of these.

Fold your felt in half so you can cut the 2 pieces you'll need at once.  Pin your pattern piece to it and cut out your eyes and teeth.

Next sew your mouth zipper to the bottom of the face, follow the directions that come with the zipper.  I had my fabric hanging off the zipper edge a little bit, about 1/8".

 Then I folded and ironed the edge under (don't make your iron too hot!  I had mine all the way up and melted my zipper a little), then I sewed the edge down to the zipper to prevent fraying.  You can zig-zag the end if you wish, for me this was easy and looks nice.

After I folded in down and sewed it to prevent fraying.

 Then I folded it over (open) and top stitched it down to the zipper.

 Here's the top stitch...

Remember I said I melted the zipper with the iron, see how it bows a little?  That's from melting it, but it still works.

Get your teeth pieces, pin them down and sew then on 2 sides to leave a pocket.  I made sure mine cover the green, so they sort of connected to the teeth of the zipper, but don't get too close so you can still open and close the zipper.

I decided to sew a little on the side where the pocket would be, I thought it would make it a little sturdier or something.  I sewed down 1.5" from the top and up an inch from the bottom.  I marked where I wanted to stop with my Mark-B-Gone pen, I love it!  You just get your mark wet and it disappears.  Don't forget to back stitch when you stop and start. 

Next pin and sew on your eye pieces.  You can sew them all together first if you'd like, but I didn't, I sewed each one on to the face, starting with the biggest circle.  I wanted my stitch to sort of be hidden, I'm not great at sewing circles, so I used a matching thread for each eye piece.

Almost done and looking good!

Next take your mouth piece fabric and iron a 1" fold at the top.  Line the fold up with the zipper as in the picture below...

Open up the mouth piece of fabric and line it up with the green to make sure the sides will be straight.    

Pin the zipper down, basically it will be like when you sewed the face piece to the zipper, you will have about 1/8" of an inch hanging over the edge of the zipper.  So I guess you really don't have to line up the fold, it just will be lined up anyway.

Since my zipper was bigger then the fabric this part was easy... open the zipper so the pull is out of the way and sew the fabric to the zipper.

With the face (green) piece I folded the edge under and sewed it down to prevent frayed or I said you could zig-zag stitch it.  You can do that here.  I did not, because I left the salvage end there knowing it won't be seen and it won't fray.

Then fold the edge where you previously ironed in a fold and top stitch it down.  This part may be tricky because you can't see the zipper, but you can use the left side as your guide on your sewing machine, so pay attention to where the left side (the fold) hits on your machine and use that for you guide.

Now your face is all sewn together.  Get your pocket piece, the 17" square... put both face (right side) up, with the face of the monster on top, line them up and sew them together, sew with just under a 1/2" seam allowance.  Sew all the way around, all 4 edges.

After I had lined mine up was when I trimmed the extra 1/2" off my mouth (the blue), remember I had cut it big knowing I may trim some off.  The zipper adds a of bit of length to your face.  It's always better to trim your edges when done then not have enough.

Look... you have a cute little pocket!  Almost done!  So exciting!!!

Make your horns... cut your horns out, sew 2 sides together with right sides facing, turn inside out, stuff, sew end shut.

I put mine 4 inches from the edges.  Turn them down, opposite of how they will look when done, line them up with the edge of the face and sew them down.  I go over them a couple of times to secure them good, knowing they will be pulled on and stuff.

Next get your zipper for the pillow and sew it on following the instructions it came with.  Or skip this step if you are hand sewing it shut.

After your zipper is sewn on, with right sides facing sew the remainder of the pillow together with a 1/2" seam, make sure to leave your zipper most of the way opened so you have a hole to turn our pillow right side out.  Again I went over where the horns are a few times, make sure your horns are tucked in when you sew the pillow together.

Clip your corners and zig-zag stitch all the way around to prevent fraying, especially if you put a zipper in which means it will opened.

Turn your pillow right side out, insert pillow form and zipper it shut... Ta-Da!!!  All done!!!  

So easy and cute!!!!

Happy sewing!!!

Here is the girl version I made for my daughter...

 I bought the premium felt for hers and it seems to not be pilling up like the cheaper felt did.  I also used the minky stuff for the colored part of the eyes and added a little yarn hair.

She Loves it!

Pleated Mary Jane Tutorial

Okay, here is my attempt at a tutorial, I hope you all can understand me.

I got the pattern from Shwin & Shwin  You should also check out the rest of the site for more patterns.  She has some cute baby clothes patterns I'm itching to make for my little one.  However at 12 weeks old and with a 5 and 3 year old it's a little hard to spend a lot of time sewing.

(please note, because I have a lot of pictures I'm not going to make them large, if you want to see the picture larger just click on it and then use your browsers back button to go back to the blog.)

Supplies: 
Fabric for the shoe (if you're making 1 pair 0-3 months I found that a fat quarter works great and should work for up to 12 months but don't quote me on it because I haven't made that size yet, I'm just guessing)
Felt for the inside or fabric if you choose
Interfacing, medium-heavy weight
Elastic Cord
2 Buttons
And the typical stuff... sewing machine, thread, scissors, etc.

Choose your fabric, I prefer 100% cotton fabric for the outside of the shoe.  I use felt for the inside to help the shoe hold its shape.  If you want to try to use fabric, put interfacing on the inside fabric as well.

Iron interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric you choose to use for the shoe.  Follow the instructions on your interfacing to do this.  I used medium-heavy weight interfacing and it worked great. (note- do NOT iron interfacing to the felt.)

Once you have your pattern (I linked to it at the top of this post) trace and cut out your pieces, don't forget to reverse the shoe top when tracing the second foot, so both shoes will have a seam in the inside.  I use the blue "mark be gone" pen to trace my patterns.  I love that pen!  You just get it wet and the blue disappears.  So if you see blue on the fabric in the pictures, that is why, it's from the "mark be gone" pen and I haven't bothered to erase the lines.

The white felt I had was one that had some glitter on it, I didn't want to run to the store to get regular stuff, so I used what I had.  The fabric is left over stuff from the burp cloth I made with this fabric.  Click here if you'd like to see the girl burp cloths I made for my little peanut.  I ended up loving this fabric for the shoes so much, I went back and bought a little more.  I'm going to try selling these shoes and more on esty, but I need to get some in different styles and fabric made first.  However if you'd like some before I get the site set up please feel free to contact me through my blog by leaving a comment.

I took the picture of the pieces after I pleated mine, so I put the pattern of what it would look like if it was pleated in the picture.

Pleat the top of the shoe, I did 3 pleats but if you want to do more or less that is your choice.  To pleat them line up the sides of the outside top (fabric) with the inside piece (felt) put the the top piece right side facing up so you can see what it will look like and fold down the pleats until it was how you like them.  I used pins to hold them in place and when it was how I liked, I ironed them down.  It has to be right side up to iron, do NOT iron the interfacing that is on the back of the fabric.

After you iron your pleats down, put your 2 pieces with the right sides together (so now the interfacing is facing up), I like to pin just to be sure they stay put, but you really don't have to pin them.

 Sew them together on the inside of the "J" with the right sides of the fabric together. I trimmed my top fabric at this step, but you can trim it after you turn them out if you wish.

The one on the left is not trimmed and the one on the right is trimmed.

Cut a "v" in the corners like in the picture below.  This helps it to turn easier and look prettier.

Turn them right sides out and iron them down.  Mark a 1/2" down from each end with a pin or a mark it with a little dot.  See picture below.

 Sew as close to the edge as you cam from mark to mark.  I like to use a thread color that matches my fabric, but a contrasting one might look cute too.

Open up the ends of one shoe and bring them together.  Put the fabric with the fabric and the felt with the felt, pin and sew.

Press the seam open with your fingers and fold it over so it is right side out.  You can't iron unless you put a pressing cloth over top because the iron can't touch the interfacing or the felt.  Using your fingers to press the seam open and holding it open as you fold over works really well.  Once you fold it over then you can iron it down.  You want to have the seam open instead of to one side so it lays nicer when it's turned right side out.

Once it's folded right side out, go back and connect the line.  If you want to try sewing it all down at once at this point instead of sewing it earlier, go ahead and try it.  I just find it easier to do it this way.

 Ta-da, this is what you'll have...

Now to make the strap...  You can do the strap several ways, you can use Velcro, put a button hole in it, or use elastic and a button like I do.  I like it this way because I feel Velcro comes apart too easily and doesn't stay fastened.  With the elastic loop it gives the strap a little stretch on the baby's foot.

When I cut the strap I draw the curve, but I cut it straight... that's just how I do it.

Put 2 pieces of the strap with the right sides facing.  Cut a 2" piece of elastic cord, fold it in half and pin it in the middle with 1/4" of the ends sticking out (see picture below), so the loop is sandwiched in between the right sides of the fabric.  I just think it's easier this way.  If you want to cut it 1/2" shorter and don't leave any sticking out, you can do that too.  Then I tack it down lots to be sure to it won't pull out.  To tack it down, just sew back and forth over it.  It's tacked down in the picture below but you can't really see it because the thread blends so well.

Sew it about 3/4's of the way around.  I used a 1/4" seam allowance here.  You could sew it all the way and try to flip it, but I've found that it's too skinny to do that and this way was easier.  The reason I do it this way is to get the curve.  It's much easier if you sew the curve this way then trying to fold it under.  In the picture below I drew over where I sewed, the black line.  The picture below that one is the same picture but without the black line.

Clip the corners so the curve folds nice.

Turn it right side out, fold in the edge that isn't sewn and iron it down.  Then stitch around the whole strap as close to the edge as you can, this will sew down the spot that wasn't already sewn down.  Plus I think it makes the strap a little more sturdy.

Attach the strap to the the outside of the shoe where the seam is.  Align the strap where you'd like and sew it on.  I like to use it to cover the seam.  

I sew right along the lines where I previously sewed on the strap.  I didn't sew across the strap at the top of the shoe, but I don't see why you couldn't.  I started at the bottom of the shoe, when I got to the top of the shoe I back stitched, lifted the needle and presser foot, moved it to the other side, backed stitch again and sewed the other side.  Then you go back and clip the little bit of thread on the top and bottom.

But I just thought, why not start at the top of the shoe, back stitch and sew down one side, sew across the bottom as close to the edge as you can, then sew up the top and back stitch.  Either way you want to do it.

Sew along the whole bottom of the shoe attaching the top to the felt.  Stay as close to the edge as you can.  This just makes it easier to fasten it to the sole of the shoe.

Sew the top of the shoe to the sole.  Turn the shoe top inside out.  Place the sole of the outside (the fabric) face up and the inside sole underneath that (the felt) and pin it to the top of the shoe, see the picture below.  Line the middle of the back of the heel up with the back of the shoe top and pin around from there. 

The shoe should look inside out.  Sew it, turn it over and make sure you caught all the fabric.   If so you're done.  If not, go back and sew it again, or rip out seams if you have to and do it again.  

For a smoother look either trim V's where the curves are or trim it really close to the seam.

Turn it right side out and pull your strap over to see where you want to sew your button on, mark it and sew it on.

Ta-Da you have a cute pair of shoes!
If you want to make it so you don't see the seams I will show you how to do that when I post the tutorial on how to make the boy/unisex shoe.  This way is a little faster.