As promised, I have completed the tutorial and the sewing pattern for the “Be My Valentine – Piggy Pillow”, which was published 3 weeks ago. This time I made a pair of Be My Valentine Piggy Pillow 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, every day is Valentine. I hope you sew the Piggy Pillow for your loved ones, whether it is Feb 14.
Besides making your loved ones happy by sewing items for them, sewing itself is good for our own mental health1. I particularly feel the satisfaction and accomplishment when finishing a project. I personally like to create beautiful things and share the designs with those who are interested for free. I hope my little effort will bring some happiness and hopes to the world.
Piggy Pillow Sewing Pattern
scroll ⬇️ to get the free sewing pattern & tutorial
This is the free sewing pattern and tutorial to make a 12″ x 10″ soft pillow in piggy shape. In this tutorial, I used 2 body towels to sew a pair of cute piggy pillows. However, you may use other materials to sew it, for example, plush, flannel, microfiber fabrics, etc. For the detail, scroll down to read more.
Besides sewing it full-size to make a small pillow, you can use this pig pattern to make it into other things. You can reduce the size and make a piggy pincushion or a stuffed pig. Talking about a stuffed pig, to make it even more interesting, put a magnet on the nose to make them kissing each other (Thanks to Jackie, who left a comment to suggest this). If you are an expert in sewing, how about challenging this pig pattern by altering it to a piggy bag for little children.
Be creative, the upshot is endless!!! Love it 🙂
My son loves the piggy pillows a lot, he even said: “Mom, one for che che (elder sister) and one for me ya!”. Immediately after giving him a YES answer, he hugs the pillow, kisses it, puffs and places it on the floor, and sleeps on it. So there, the 2 little piggy pillows go to my 2 lovely kids. Isn’t it happy to see them growing up with your handmade? I feel so delighted, and this also ignited my motivations and energy to design and create more handmade for them to growing up with.
Hope to see you sew something for your little ones soon.
For more free sewing patterns, especially stuffed animal, please visit my Sock Animal Free Patterns.
Piggy Pillow Sewing Pattern
This is the free sewing pattern and tutorial to make a 12" x 10" soft pillow in piggy shape. In this tutorial, I used 2 body towels to sew a pair of cute piggy pillows. However, you may use other materials to sew it, for example, plush, flannel, microfiber fabrics, etc.
Besides sewing it full-size to make a small pillow, you can use this sewing pattern to make it into other things. You can reduce the size and make a piggy pincushion or a stuffed piggy. Talking about stuffed piggy, to make it even more interesting, put a magnet on the nose to make them kissing each other. If you are an expert in sewing, how about challenging this pattern by altering it to a piggy bag for little children.
Enjoy sewing them!
Download and print separately: SEWING PATTERN
Materials
- Soft body towels 27 1/2″ x 55″ (70cm x 140cm) – 2 pcs. of contrasting color (enough to make 4 piggy pillows)
- Cotton fabric 27 1/2″ x 23″ (for 1 pillow) prefer higher thread count or quilting quality fabric
- Embroidery floss (black or dark brown)
- Poly-fill stuffing material
- Sewing threads (matching colors)
- 7 pcs. of Papers or cards (for the template printing)
- Piggy Pillow Pattern Templates
Tools
- Sewing machine . You can also hand-sew, if you prefer
- Long Sewing Needle (about 2″) and pins
- Water Erasable Fabric Marker
- Pen
- Scissors
- Blunt point tweezers or an awl
- Printer
Instructions
HOW TO SEW PIGGY PILLOW
- Print Templates:
Print out the 7 pages of Piggy Pillow PDF pattern of the piggy pillow. Piece page 2 to page 6 accordingly to get the full-size template.
The template given has no seam allowance included. Add 1/4″ to 5/8″ while cutting out the fabric pieces to all parts except the Nose piece.
- Trace Templates:
Trace the piggy pattern onto the cotton fabric with a pencil.
Top, 1 piece
Bottom, 1 piece
Ears, 1 piece each
Nose, 1 piece
- Cut Fabrics:
Place 2 layers of towels right side together on a cotton fabric piece, then place the traced cotton piece on top. Pin them together.
Use a contrasting color for the nose. And, use 1 layer of the original color with another layer of contrasting color for the ears.
You can choose to have the same color for the tail, but I prefer using the same color as the body.
Cut all pieces with a seam allowance of 1/4" to 5/8". No seam allowance is needed on the nose.
- Sewing:
Sew all pieces according to the following instruction:
a. Body-pieces - Stack the top piece on the bottom piece with the right sides together, align and pin. Sew from point A to A,
b. Ear-pieces - sew from Point B to B,
c. Tail-piece - fold the fabric piece along the long-side, then sew along the long side, followed by one of the short sides.
d. Nose-piece - Sew running stitches near the nose piece's raw edges, pull the thread to gather.
For body and ears pieces, clip the seam allowance near the sewing line; this will smooth the curved seams after turning inside out.
Turn body, ear, and tail inside out.
Trace the position of the eyes and ears on the body-piece, nostril on the nose-piece.
Tie a knot at the tip (the close end) of the tail as shown (I have changed from pink to a blue tail), mark a length of 4″ from the tip.
Turn the body right side in and position the tail on the top part of the body.
Sew to seam the opening on the top part only.
Turn the piggy right side out.
Optional, embellish the body with a heart. Slip stitch it into position. Stuff some poly-fill before complete the sewing.
- Stuffing:
Stuff the piggy body, ears, and nose with poly-fill to the fullness you prefer.
Seam up the opening of the body and ears by using slip stitches.
- Assembly:
Sew to attach the nose.
With 4 strands of black embroidery floss, embroidery the eyes with stem stitches. Start from the marking of the ear, needle in. Needle-out at point 2, stem stitch by following the line till point 3, needle-in. Needle-out at point 4; that's the nostril marking. Continue to sew the nostril from point 4, followed by needle-in at the bottom end.
Stitch the other nostril and eye, and end the stitching on the other ear.
Pin and sew the ears on the markings. Cover up the knots of the brown or black floss on the embroideries.
Press the ear toward the nose and stitch the around the ears.
Piggy Pillow is done!!!! I hope you like the Piggy Pillow as much as I do.
Notes
Seam Allowance: Add 1/4″ to 5/8″ to the template.
Recommended Products
Purchase the exact same material and tool used in this pattern from Craft Passion Shop.
Body bottom pattern – Do I repeat the steps as shown for the body top ?
Yes, trace the bottom with the bottom template.
Super cute! A question: why do you use the woven cotton fabric? Is it to help keep the shape? 🙂 Lisa
Hi Cucicucioo, the cotton will help to maintain the shape of the pillow but the main reason is to prevent the poly-stuffing from coming out especially if you are sewing it for little baby.
Love these pillows! So cute!
I love it. Very cute.
great !!!!! i love it!!!
from: Dawna Paris
Etsy Shop
hi, i know this has been asked and answered but i’m still kinda lost about how you did the nose? i’m so sorry if i’m being annoying or smth… but this is my first time doing this project. hope you could help me. when you stitch around the nose then gathered it, it will be like pouch right??? ^^ THANK YOU.
hey there! I loooove these!! they’re really cute! when i clicked on the print-out link, the adobe reader popped up. but how do I enlarge the picture? would mean a lot if u’d tell me! thank you!!
Some printers do come with enlarge printing to a certain size, for example, it will expand the document 4 times larger and split it into 4 papers printing. If yours don not have this option, perhaps you will need to print it out as normal size then enlarge it by using photocopier.
Hi Joanne,
With your permission I would like to make, and donate, some of your piggy pillows for our local children’s hospital, I know the sick babies would love to cuddle up to something so colorful and soft.
many regards
Dorothy
Hi, thanks for this great tutorial! today i made the piggy pillow for a friend of mine and it turned out super cute!!! here are some pics:
http://milo-in-my-mind.blogspot.com/2012/02/neue-kumpel.html
anika
Cute!!! Well done Anika 🙂
This is really a cute pillow. Pretty good color combination used. Maintain up the good function. Thanks for the tutorial.
Wow this is too too cute! TFS 🙂
This is such a great one that i started making it straight away. its really cute so far but i have a quick question, or better said request, could you please elaborate on how you made the nose? i can’t quite understand what you did. thanks in advance.. 🙂
Hi Sara, for the nose, just run the stitches around, pull to gather, stuff with poly-fill, pull again and tie. Position the nose onto the face and slip stitch it. 🙂
These pillows are so cute. Very creative!! You should check out my creations too. http://www.katiesflowerpens.com
These are so adorable! I will definitely be making some of these piggies..thanks for the great pattern!
So Sweet! Thanks for sharing … I’ve posted a link.
SO cute. Would love to see cute piggies with wings, a la “flying pigs” — perhaps next time…?
This is a good suggestion!!! I love it, yeah, will make 1 next time!!!! May be make a hanging flying pig baby mobile!!! Give me 5!!!
Adorable piggies 🙂
How adorable! I’ve been wanting to start sewing … maybe this will be one of the first things I sew. Who knows?
have a try on it…. My son and daughter love them every much, so hugable 🙂
EEkk! How adorable! I’m gonna make this asap! Thank you tons!!
I will have to polish my (beginner) sewing skills a bit before I’m ready for these. But they are ADORABLE!!
Aww, this is so cute! I love them! Thanks so much, I’ll be linking.
Hello! I’d like to tell you that I have linked you in my blog.
Magda
These little guys are SOOO cute! I love the little heart patches on their piggy rear ends!
I linked to your tutorial out on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/free-pattern-be-my-valentine-piggy-pillow/2010/02/14/
–Anne
祝你虎年龙精虎猛！万事如意！情人節快乐！
Thanks a ton for a wonderful project with a simple tutorial. I can’t wait to make a pair for me. 🙂
Hola: Precioso el almohadon Muchas gracias por el tutorial excelente paso a paso
lo entendi todo perfectamente.
Besitos
Translation (by Google):
Hello Beautiful the cushion Many thanks for the excellent step by step tutorial
I understood everything perfectly.
Besitos