Love Bug Pillows

Fabrics for the first pillow

A few days before I left to visit my daughter and granddaughter, my daughter let me know one of our activities would be helping with a birthday party for my granddaughter's best friend. That news meant I needed to come up with a gift! For best friends, that meant that I also needed to make a second item for my granddaughter!

I remembered making Love Bug pillows for my older grandchildren a few years ago. The pillows had places to hide notes or small gifts. The pillows are still being used three years later so this would be a good gift idea.

I uncovered the pattern and set about making two more pillows. I'm glad that I documented the finishes in a post as it was helpful to review the Shabby Fabrics video on how to sew the pillow.

I pulled my fat quarter containers and found a half yard piece to use for the wings, A bright purple to use for the body, a light purple/pink to use for the head and a gold for the back. These were all batik fabrics and three were fat quarters.

Pillow top 

The layout of the pillow looks a little weird. The directions are well written. The video follows the written directions which are available at the video link. This time, I machine appliquéd the eyes. I also used an aurifil spool to draw the eye shape. It didn't take long before I was ready to attach the legs and sew around the perimeter of the pillow. I placed the legs differently between the two pillows. I also used hem facing that was in my grandmother's stash. There was enough for both pillows. I folded it in half and stitched close to the edge.

Back of one pillow

I had a bag of bits of batting that I've been saving for a long time. I used that, some leftover polyester batting and pillow forms to fill the bug. I made a separate case for the stuffing materials. The stuffing case allows the outer fabric to be laundered when needed.

First Love Bug finish

I have a book, a card and some stickers to slip into the folds of the pillow. The wings and head are three dimensional. I can slip my hand in those areas and that is where I will place the gifts. The pillow is the wrapping. I hope it goes over well!

Second Love Bug finish

For the second fabric, I used fabrics that had a wedding theme and were pink/purple since pink is my granddaughter's favorite color currently. The pattern called for five fat quarters; but, since I cut away the corners, I'm estimating that I have almost a fat quarter in scraps! I have processed the scraps into useable units. I did cut strips and squares. 

Usable units remaining after scrap processing

Again, I made a separate case for the stuffing, batting and pillow form. The pillow forms may have come from my mom as I don't remember buying circle pillow forms!  I over stuffed the pillows because after a bit of hugging ,the batting will compress. 

Finished back of second pillow

The girls liked their pillows. Annabelle was getting a big girl bed and her mom sent the photo of her princess bed. She had a Frozen themed party. Can you tell that she is a fan of Elsa? Note the Love Bug pillow in the upper right.

Annabelle's big girl bed 

Miss A got a kick out of getting a pillow. She knew where to find the "treasures" that I had packed into the pillow.

Miss A and her pillow

I used two and a quarter yards of fabric from stash to make these gifts. This brings my use of stash this month to a net loss of two and a quarter yards. For the year, I've used 13 yards from my stash! Linking to Oh Scrap and Sew & Tell.