Creative articles about sewing

Cloud pillow – Kids workshop

Hello Bernina Lovers!

Today I am going to show you in a few and quick steps how to make a Cloud pillow.

Here is an idea of a sewing workshop for children

Actually, I offered this workshop to my daughter’s friend for her birthday a few weeks ago. Instead of purchasing another gift, I decided to offer her a sewing afternoon with her bestie so they could both make something special. She had had a toy sewing machine for Christmas last year and she loved sewing.

My humble recommendation about sewing machines for kids…

–>I am making an aparté here: if you want to buy a sewing machine for your kid, I would suggest you get an adult one, not one of those toy machines as they usually never work, so the kid can’t really enjoy the process. Even a basic sewing machine would be better than a toy one. And of course, always under the surveillance of someone that knows how dangerous sewing can be (specially for a kid).

So, I resume what I was telling you… the 3 of us gathered a few days ago in my sewing room and she was super excited to spend a few hours sewing with her friend and me, and using a real sewing machine.

Making a cloud pillow

Both girls came up with the ides themselves, they wanted to make a cloud pillow! “Easy peasy I thought“, don’t you agree?

I decided to make the cloud pillow in 2 different types of fabric, one side in “faux mouton” fabric and the other one in white cotton (it actually is some fabric scraps from my living room curtains that I had shortened a few weeks ago ;-). Since we were making 2 cloud pillows (one for each girl), we made everything in double, so you’ll see 2 layers of fabric in each picture.

A few simple steps…

We started using the 2 rectangles of curtain scraps and the girls pinned them together.

Once they were pinned, I traced the cloud shape, freehand.

Once the shape approved by the girls, I traced the same shape with the sewing allowance (1 cm).

The girls re-pinned the 2 layers but this time inside the drawing, so that we could cut the fabric without moving.

Once the cotton pieces were cut, we placed them onto the “faux mouton” fabric (2 layers) and pinned the fabrics together.

I traced the cloud shape on the “faux mouton” and the girls cut the 4 layers (with my help 😉 )

Once the 4 pieces were cut out we just had to place them 2 by 2, right sides facing.

I traced 2 lines on one top end to leave a gap when sewing the cloud.

Then the 2 girls moved onto the machine. Exciting moment!

My daughter started first, as she has more experience sewing, while her friend watched her. But first, we placed the stitching speed to the slowest, in order to make sure we were the safest when sewing. This is a characteristic that I love about my Bernina Q570.

 

Once my daughter had finished her sewing, it was her friend’s turn. She first put the presser foot down in order to tuck the fabric and keep it in place, and then…

She started sewing! she was super excited and very focused!

Once the stitching was finished, the girls turned the cloud pillow right side out by the gap left earlier.

Stuffing the cloud

And then, they stuffed their clouds with the stuffing.

I helped them to do the final invisible stitches to fully close the cloud pillow.

Both girls were super super super super (did I say super??) happy with their handmade cloud pillows!

This is a very easy project that you can do with kids and they really love it. It takes about 1 hour or 2 to accomplish and they use their pillow for years!!!

Free sewing instructions: Cloud Pillow

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