Fluffy Car Pillows

Free Animal-Shaped Fluffy Pillow Sewing Tutorial

A super easy and budget-friendly way to customize your car and make it more comfortable to ride in? Yes please!!! I'm a short girl, so I don't feel very comfortable in car seats (does anybody, though?)... I've been meaning to get some for my car, but then I realized, I could easily just make some! So, I took a little trip down to my local dollar store, picked up a $5 pillow, and got to work! I made sure to take lots of pictures and write my steps down so you can make custom pillows for your car as well!

Materials

You can use whichever materials and methods you feel comfortable with. For example, I used a combination of hand and machine sewing throughout the project.

• a pillow
• fluffy fabric (to cover one side of your pillow)
• ribbon
• candle or lighter for finishing the ribbon
• thread (in a color that matches your pillow/fabric)
• a needle
• scissors
• chalk, a marker, or a pencil
• optional: pins or safety pins
• optional: felt and embroidery thread for details
• optional: a sewing machine

For the base, I used a super cheap pillow from Dollarama. You can use any old pillow, or even make both pillows from scratch!

Planning

To start, you're going to have to do a bit of planning to figure out how you want your pillows to look. First, figure out which side is the "front" and "back" side of your pillow. In my case, one side of the pillow has an, uhm, interesting stripy geometrical print, while the other side is a cute oatmeal colour. Needless to say, the geometrical print isn't my style, so I'm choosing that side as the front, which I will cover with fluffy fabric later. Now, draw a line down the middle of your pillow. Later on, we will cut the pillow in half to make two smaller pillows, so this line will help you visualize the shape of your pillows as you plan.

Now, you need to plan out the shape of the pillow's "ears". To make the ears, pinch as much fabric as you can while pushing the stuffing out of the way. Then, fold that fabric over onto the front side of the pillow as shown.

Depending on how much fabric you fold, you can make different "ear" shapes. If you fold a long thin strip, you'll get tiny little ears! If you fold a short thick strip, you'll get big ears! I suggest using pins to secure the fold so you can see the shape of your pillow without your hands in your way.

Once you're happy with the shape of your pillow, draw a line on the front side of the pillow at the end of your fold. This will tell you how much fabric you folded, and how long the fold is. If you used pins, take those out, and take a second to measure and make sure the folds you drew on both sides are similar enough. It's okay if they're not perfect because they will be covered up by fluffy fabric later! By the end of this step, you should have the following markings on your pillow.

Sew the Ears

Finally, we can get started with sewing! The first step is to secure the ears along the fold you just planned. As you can see, I sewed the folds by hand while the pillow was intact because it helped me control the fold. If you'd prefer to use a sewing machine for this step, you'll have to cut your pillow in half and remove the stuffing first. Remember, this fold will get covered by the fluffy fabric later, so it doesn't have to be perfect or pretty, just make sure that it's secure!

Sew the Bottom

Now, we can turn one pillow into two! Start by cutting the pillow in half along the middle line. Cutting a whole pillow is probably quite difficult, so I cut a small hole on the edge, put my scissors in, and cut one side at a time. Then, I separated the stuffing along the middle using my hands.

Take the stuffing out, and turn the pillow inside out. It's time to sew the bottom of the pillow! You can sew a curve along the corners to make the pillows rounded like I did, or, just sew a straight line. Either way, make sure you leave a decent sized hole for stuffing the pillow back up! This is very important!! Do not forget to leave a hole!

Flip the pillow right side out again using the hole you left open. Then, stuff the pillow through the hole. The smaller your hole is, the harder it will be. Be patient, and push the stuffing into the corners as you go. Finally, you can sew your hole closed! I recommend using the ladder stitch for a seamless finish.

Ribbons

Cut your ribbon into four pieces of equal length. They should be long enough to tie the pillow around your car seat, so the exact length will depend on your pillow and car headrest size. You may choose to cut a fancier shape on one side of your ribbon. I did diagonal cut—it's such a simple way to elavate the ribbon's finish! Keep the other side of each ribbon cut flat, as this side will be sewn onto the pillows. Quickly pass the ends of your ribbons through a lit candle or lighter to melt the fibers and prevent them from fraying.

Before sewing the ribbons onto your pillows, you may want to check how the pillow fits in your car seat to find the best spot to sew the ribbon. Mark the height on the back of your pillows, making sure it's near the middle and similar enough on both sides (on both pillows). When you're happy with the location, sew the flat ends of the ribbons onto your pillows. This will be on the back of the pillow and mostly covered by fabric, so again, don't worry about perfection—just make sure that it's very secure! I suggest doing a test fit on your car seat at this point to make sure it fits and ties well before moving onto the next step.

Fluffy Fabric

Cut a rectangle of fluffy fabric that is large enough to cover the front side of your pillow. Do not cut out ear shapes on the top edge. Instead, the extra fabric will be sewn onto the top of the "head"—you don't want a bald spot on top between the ears! Sew your fabric onto the front, overlapping it onto the back side by a little to cover the edges.

If you prefer, you can make your own fabric rectangle by knitting or crocheting some fluffy yarn!

Details

Okay so, when I first started this project, my plan was to embroider a face on top of the pillows using felt and yarn. However, when I saw the "finished" fluffy pillows at the end of the last step, I thought they were absolutely adorable!! I decided to stop there and leave them as minimalist, fluffy, vaguely animal-face-shaped pillows!

I do still think these pillows would look adorable with facial details as well! You can cut eyes and a nose/snout out of felt, and embroider smaller details with yarn. You can make generic animals, or your favourite cartoon characters! If I ever get bored of my plain white pillows, I already have plans to add some black eyes, a yellow nose, and a big red bow on the left ear! ;)

All Done!

You just finished making your cute little car pillows! I hope they make your car rides so much cozier! If you decide to post them on social media, I'd love to see them! Feel free to tag me on any of my socials! You can also DM or email me any questions or feedback you may have!

If you really liked my tutorial, you can tip me on Ko-fi or on PayPal !

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