Hand Towel Pillow and Tutorial

Begin with an inexpensive hand towel (mine was $3 at Wal-Mart):

And add an applique:

And you have a cute, soft, sturdy little pillow for a sweet little girl, or boy! 

First, add the applique:

1) Make a pattern for whatever applique you would like on your pillow.  I chose the letter “E”, being my daughter’s initial. 

2) Trace onto fabric and cut out.

3) Trace BACKWARDS onto interfacing – I suggest Heat ‘n Bond LITE here, as it will bond to both your applique and then the towel, so you don’t have to use pins while sewing on the applique.

4) Follow the instructions on the Heat ‘n Bond Lite (and it must be LITE, or you can’t sew through it) and apply to applique; then iron on to towel in desired location.

5) Satin stitch around the applique.  To do this, just set your machine to zigzag stitch, and adjust the stitch width to a very wide setting (experiment on a piece of scrap fabric to get the right width for you), and your stitch length to almost zero.  Just in case you’re wondering, there is nothing on the machine or in the manual that says “satin stitch”.  I looked all over!  Those of you who have been sewing longer than I will have already known this, and are free to chuckle here :).

Now finish the pillow:

1) I simply folded my towel in half, with right sides inside (tag on the outside, which I then cut off to make life easier).  You could leave the right sides out, since the edges of the towel are already finished.  It will just change the look slightly.

2) Sew around the three sides (no need to sew the fold), stopping  two or three inches before you get to the fold to leave a hole for stuffing.

3) Turn right side out (unless you already sewed it right side out), and stuff to desired firmness with polyfil.

4) Topstitch the hole closed, and you’re finished!

5) Give to a small child, or keep it for yourself to use on the plane or train!

I’ll be joining some of these link parties this week!

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