Homemade Pillow Pet

Remember how I claimed to be a fashion designer and seamstress? For Christmas, I got brave and decided to try something for real. Behold the homemade pillow pet...

My daughters (3 and 5) have been begging me for one ever since they began to watch Qubo, which has a pillow pet commercial about every 5 minutes. The requests crescendo shortly after each commercial, then die off, only to recrescendo after the next commercial. Needless to say, all I hear is, "When can I get a pillow pet?....When can I get a pillow pet?"

My problem was that I couldn't swallow shelling out $20 to $40 for one of these glorified stuffed animals, so I attempted to create my own.

I went to the store to look at the real thing. I took notes and made sketches of what I thought were the components.

When I came home, I grabbed some fabric scraps and made a quick, small prototype from my notes.

Then I took the pieces from the prototype (after a few adjustments) and drew a larger pattern for the pillow pet.

Here they are on Christmas morning!

The whole thing ended up being easier and quicker than I thought it would be. I spent about $5 and one hour on each homemade pillow pet. My girls love the fact that no one else has a pillow pet just like theirs.

Does anyone want to invent a new genus and species for this animal?

Tips:

• Use coupons to purchase the fabric in order to keep the price down. I purchased this fabric at Jo-Ann's.
• Email me at bargainbasics@gmail.com if you want my instructions and pattern.
• Visit No Big Dill to see a REAL seamstress in action!