When I planned for a vacation to my home country, I decided I want to make some gifts for my cousin's and friend's kids. I had no sewing machine at that time, so I bought a fabric glue and tested its strength. It was strong and holds the stuffing well.So, I decided to make them shaped pillows. I got some fun prints of fabric and made the pillow in the shape of the print. i.e I made the outline of a bug shape for a ladybug printed fabric, owl shape for owl printed fabric. I also made a car pillow for one of my youngest cousins in the color and shape of the new car they purchased recently. So, there are a lot of possibilities to make these pillows. Let's see what are the steps I followed to create these pillows.

Step 1: Materials Required

1/2 yard of solid cotton fabric
Poly-fill for stuffing
Fabric glue(I used Aleene's OK to wash it)
Fabric scissors.
Tailor's chalk/marker.
Iron

Step 2:

Iron your fabric and fold it in such a way you have two layers of fabric and right sides facing each other.

Draw your pattern onto pattern paper/newspaper and cut it.(I just did it free hand.)Trace the pattern onto the wrong side of the fabric.Leave 1/2 to 1-inch seam allowance, if you have not cut the pattern with seam allowance.

Step 3:

Cut the fabric pieces and apply the glue all over the edge of the pattern leaving a gap such that your one hand can go through for filling the stuffing. (This should be done by keeping both the pieces right sides facing each other.)

Step 4:

Allow the glue to dry for 24 hours (Refer the instructions on the glue bottle) and turn the pieces inside out using the gap that you left for filling.If you feel you did not get crisp edges, turn it to the wrong side again and make small slits in the seam allowance (As shown) all over and reverse it.Be patient and careful while doing this because if you make a large slit it will spoil the pillow.

Step 5:

Fill it with the stuffing and close the gap with the glue. To keep it closed, use a couple of binder clips or cloth pin after applying glue.Leave it, for 24 hours to dry. Tada!! your shape pillow is now ready!!

Step 6: Car Pillow

For the car pillow, I followed the same steps like drawing the pattern on a paper, tracing and cutting the pattern on the fabric, gluing the pieces right side facing each other with a small gap for stuffing. After this, I cut the car windows and tires pieces from the main pattern and traced onto the white fabric.(Make sure you trace one set of windows by flipping the pattern)

Then iron the heat and bond sheet to the wrong side of the white fabric. Cut the shapes using fabric scissors and Iron them onto the main pillow.Follow the instructions on the back of the heat n bond sheet. Once the white fabric pieces are ironed, I used a black fabric marker yo outline the pieces and added some extra features like lights.

You can also use White fabric paint to draw the features like windows and tires instead of the above-mentioned step. As I did not have enough time for the applying two coat of paint and wait for it to dry I followed the above method. But it is up to you.

Once all the features are added, Stuff the pillow and close it with the glue. The car pillow is now ready.

Step 7:

If you want to sew these pillows, replace the glue with stitches and to do the final step of closing the gap, hand sew using ladder stitch like I did in this travel pillow.

Hope you like this idea. If you did, please vote for me in "Soft toy Challenge" and "Homemade gifts contest". Share what you think about these pillows in the comments below. As always I would love to hear from you.

For more DIYs and craft ideas like this, please visit www.vikalpah.com