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 no matter if it is Feb 14.
Besides as a pillow, you can use this sewing pattern to make into other things, for example, pin cushion, smaller softy as a gift, or a piggy backpack 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 each other (Thanks to Jackie who left a comment to suggest this). Be creative, the upshot is endless!!! Love it 🙂
Piggy Pillow Sewing Pattern
Be My Valentine Piggy
Difficulty: Intermediate
Finished Size: 12″ x 9.5″
Download and print separately: Piggy Pillow Sewing Pattern
Materials:
Make: 1
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. Polyester stuffing material
5. Sewing threads (matching colors)
6. Cards, for the template printing
Tools:
1. Sewing machine
. You can also hand-sew, if you prefer
2. Long Sewing Needle (about 2″) and pins
4. Water Soluble Fabric Marker
5. Pen
6. Scissors
7. Blunt point tweezers or an awl
8. Printer
Seam Allowance: Add 3/8″ to 5/8″ to the sew line
Print out the PDF pattern of the piggy pillow. Enlarge it 4 times to get the size I made (12″ x 10″).
The template given has no seam allowance included, please add 3/8″ to 5/8″ from the outline of the template.
Use a pencil and trace the pattern onto the cotton fabric.
Top -1
Bottom -1
Ear – 1 + 1 (reverse the pattern for the other side)
Nose – 1
Sandwich the towels in between 2 fabrics.
Use a contrasting color for the nose and 1 layer of the ear.
You can choose to have the same color for the tail but I would suggest using the same color as the body, it looks nicer.
Sew it up on the sewing line, it can be from a sewing machine or hand stitching.
Trim out the shape with about 1/4″ seam allowance (nose – 3/4″).
For the 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 shown so that it gathers and shrinks to the size of the dashed line of the pattern.
Look at the pink tail, I later changed it to blue as it looks better with the 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 a 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 stitches 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 by following 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!!!! Hope you like the Piggy Pillow as much as I do 🙂
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