Sewing Tutorial: Piggy Pillow

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Learn to sew Piggy Pillow
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As promised, I have completed the tutorial and the pattern for the “Be My Valentine – Piggy Pillow”, which was published 3 weeks ago. This time I made a pair for my kids, they love it.

You may not be able to do it in time for this valentine but as I said, if you have love in you, everyday is valentine. Hope you sew some for your loved ones no matter if it is Feb 14.

Besides as a pillow, you can use this pattern to make into other things, for example, pin cushion, smaller softy as gift, or a piggy back pack for little children. Just change the size by reducing or enlarging and modify it to fit into your design. You can even put a magnet on the nose to make them kissing each other, remember to reverse the polarity so that they attract to each other (Thanks to Jackie who left a comment to suggest this). Be creative, the upshot are endless!!! Love it

Material you need:

1. Soft body towels 27 1/2″ x 55″ (70cm x 140cm) – 2 pcs. of contrasting color (enough to make 4 piggy pillows)

2. Cotton fabric 27 1/2″ x 23″ (for 1 pillow) prefer higher thread count or quilting quality fabric

3. Embroidery floss (black or dark brown)

4. Poly-fill (you can get it from a pillow if you can’t find it in the store)

5. Pencil

6. Sewing essential

Print out the PDF pattern of the piggy pillow.
Enlarge it 4 times to get the size I made (12″ x 10″).

Use a pencil and trace the pattern onto the fabric.
Top -1
Ear – 1 + 1 (reverse the pattern for the other side)
Nose – 1

Sandwich the towels in between 2 fabrics.
Use contrasting color for the nose and 1 layer of the ear.
You can choose to have same color for the tail but I would suggest to use the same color as the body, it looks nicer.

Sew it up on the sewing line, it can be from sewing machine or hand stitching.
Trim out the shape with about 1/4″ seam allowance (nose – 3/4″).
For body, sew from point A to A, and for ear, sew from Point B to B, leave an opening for turning the work inside out.
Clip near the sewing line about 1/2″ next to each other, so that the curve is smooth after turning inside out.
Sew the border of the nose with the largest pitch of stitches. Pull the thread as show so that it gathers and shrinks to the size of the dash line of the pattern.
Look at the pink tail, I later changed it to blue as it looks better with same color.

Turn body, ear and tail inside out.
Trace the position of the eyes and ears on the body, nostril for the nose. Flip over the body and trace the bottom sewing line.

Tie a knot at the tip of the tail as shown, mark a length of 4″ from the tip.

Turn the body outside in and position the tail on the top part of the body.
Stitch up the opening only on the top part.
Slit an bigger opening at the bottom to the newly traced line.
Turn the piggy inside out again.

Embellish the body with a heart. Slip stitch it into position. Stuff some poly-fill before complete the sewing.

Stuff the piggy with poly-fill to the fullness you prefer.
Hand stitch up the bottom opening by using whip stitch.

Sew the nose onto the body.
Stitch the eyes with 4 strands of black or dark brown embroidery floss.
Start from the marking of the ear, needle in. Needle out at *2, stem stitch follow the line till *3, needle in. Needle out at *4, the upper end of the nostril and needle in at the bottom end.
Stitch the other nostril and eye, and end the stitching on the other ear.

Sew the ears on. Cover up the knots of the brown or black floss on the embroideries.

Fold the ear toward the nose and stitch the whole stretch especially both ends to secure it.

Mission completion!!!!

Related Crafts

1. Sewing Tutorial: Turtle Pincushion {With Pattern}
2. “Be My Valentine” Piggy Pillows
3. Purse Pattern: Tiger Coin Purse
4. Sewing Tutorial: Kitty Coin Purse