Confessions of a Stay-At-Home Mom: Tooth Fairy Pillow Tutorial

We are suddenly in the age of dealing with loose teeth.

The whole thing makes my stomach flip flop.

As a child, my dad was the ultimate at-home dentist. The moment we even breathed the whisper of a loose tooth, he'd stick his entire fist into our mouths and yank that sucker out (whether it was ready to go or not, mind you). The only redeeming factor was that later that evening, the Tooth Fairy would arrive and bring the sweet salve of yanked teeth wounds: money.

Needless to say, I'm still a little scarred from these experiences.

So when Chica started complaining that her tooth was loose, I got nauseous. I remembered the pulling, the pain, the tears. And really, just watching her tongue wiggle that little front tooth gives me the heebie-jeebies. I'm thinking we'll need to find alternative measures if that thing doesn't come out on it's own.

On a positive note, when I was little, my mom had a special pillow for when we lost our teeth. It was small, maybe 9-inches by 9-inches, and swathed in yellow and white gingham with lace around the edges. In the middle of the pillow was a small pocket. It was here that we would put our lost teeth in anticipation of the Tooth Fairy's arrival. I loved that little pillow and the significance it held.

Since we'll be having to debut the Tooth Fairy in the not-so-distant future, I thought I'd whip up my own homemade version of the Tooth Fairy Pillow. Now, disclaimer here: I am not skilled in the craft realm. So if you saw the title of this post and thought I'd somehow morphed into one of those crafty design bloggers, you've been duped. I can't lay out the perfect pattern for a pillow, complete with beautiful pictures detailing my fine work.

What I can give you, though, is a rudimentary pillow that even a squirrel could manage to make. The hems won't be pretty. And it won't win you any Home Economics awards. But it is easy. And it's something you can make. Which means it will mean the world to your kids.

Seriously: if I can make this, you can make this.

Here's what you'll need:

2 pieces of contrasting fabric*
A needle (for hand-sewing)
Polyester Filling/Stuffing
Thread

First, my * note: You'll need VERY little fabric for this project. You need to be able to make 2 9-inch squares and 1 1-1/2 inch square. So you'll need less than a yard of each. The problem is most fabric are sold by the yard. So see if your local fabric store can give you 1/2 a yard. OR, search the scrap, remnant or quilting square fabrics. You will most likely find what you'll need here and spend less money.

Second: You can choose to hand sew or machine sew this project. If you are slow and careful, this can easily be done by hand. I happen to have a sewing machine (gasp! I know!), so I used that until the end, after I had stuffed the pillow and hand sewed the hole.

Now how to do it:

1) Pick which fabric you want to use as the main pillow and cut 2 9-inch squares. Then, cut a 1-1/2 inch square from the other fabric. This piece will be your tooth pocket.

My fabric

Chevron = Pillow, Pink = Tooth Pocket

2) Next, I pinned my small pocket fabric to one of the panels of my large pillow fabric. (Note: Ignore the small white thread on the pink fabric. The small square is very difficult to hem, so I decided to forgo this part. If you are crafty like ice is cold, go for it. Instead, I made my pillow "shabby chic" and left it kind of rugged.)

This was the first attempt at hemming, which I trashed.
So ignore the white thread on the pink square.

3) Sew (either by hand or machine) 3 sides of the pocket onto the pillow panel, leaving the top side unsewn and open, making a "U" shape (see picture below).

It's kind of reminiscent of a watermelon, no?

4) Pin the 2 pillow panels right side together (meaning, the "outside" good part is on the inside for now and you are looking at the "inside" blah part).

All pinned and ready to go. Note that it's the "bad" side you see.

5) Sew (either by hand or machine) around the entire edge of the pinned fabric, leaving a 1-2 inch opening so you can turn the pillow right-side out and stuff it. I sewed the hem about 1/4 from the edge the whole way around.

6) Through the opening, turn the pillow right side out. Yay!

I pushed the fabric through the hole to turn it right-side out.

Eh. Imperfect, but sewn! Now onto the filling.

7) Stuff the pillow with the Poly-Fil as little or as much as you'd like through the hole you left open (stop laughing and get your mind out of the gutter).

Stuff it. Stuff it good.

8) By hand, sew up the hole. I didn't do anything fancy - just a whip stitch - but anything will do. Remember - it doesn't need to look amazing or anything.