Make a pillow toy from any image!

My preschooler has a couple favorite shows. Which I don’t mind, because kids TV nowadays is educational while entertaining. He has mighty math powers from Team UmiZoomi, Special Agent Oso has taught him to break big jobs down into multiple steps, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates teaches him the value of working as a team.

A few weeks ago, he told me that he wanted a Buckey pillow. Being a crafter and knowing how to sew, I figured that I could whip up a quick pillow for him with just a few supplies…

Supplies:
Plain Fabric (I used a Kona Cotton, I think this is Ivory)
Printable iron-on t-shirt transfer
Stuffing (like Polyfill)
Scrap of felt
Iron
Scissors
Sewing Machine

Making the stuffed toy is super easy.

1. I searched around online to find an image I liked of Buckey the Pirate Ship, and printed it onto the printable transfer paper. Important to note – if there is any writing on the image you pick, you’ll want to reverse it before printing.

2. Cut out the transfer pretty close to the shape of the ship.

3. Iron the transfer onto the white cotton fabric as directed on the transfer packaging.

4. Leave the paper covering the transfer, and cover with a second piece of fabric about the same size. Stitch all the way around the transfer, following the shape of the ship, leaving a hole of about 3″ at the bottom for turning.

5. Trim all the way around the shape, clipping any curves as needed. Turn right side out. The transfer may crinkle a little in turning, that’s fine. Once the pillow is right-side out, press again to fix any wrinkles in the transfer.

Now you can peel off the paper and stuff the pirate pillow! After stuffing, I pinned the hole at the bottom, and just stitched it up with my sewing machine. If you have more time, you can use a needle and thread and a blind stitch… but I had an impatient 4-year-old…

I did want to give it an extra touch, so I cut a triangle out of some scrap felt and stitched through all the layers with the sewing machine to add it to the top.