Tooth Fairy Pillow

I hadn't exactly planned to do another post today, after all I just finished one yesterday. Sometimes though, necessity steps in and we have to bump up a planned project. Take today for example. Bright and early (well, at least earlier than I would have liked) my oldest excitedly appeared at the side of the bed holding an object in his hand. Not able to focus right away it took me a minute to realize exactly what it was, but I didn't have to wonder for long.

"Mommy! My tooth finally came out!"

You should know that this is the tooth that has been hanging by a thread for the last, oh I don't know, 12 years or so. I assumed that it would never actually fall out, but there it was pinched between my son's fingers! So, I bumped one project that I was going to start today and got busy on a tooth fairy pillow. A friend of mine had one posted last week on her Facebook page that she purchased from Etsy, an absolutely adorable creation that I immediately fell in love with. It had just the right amount of whimsy and function, and most importantly, it hung from a door knob to make the tooth fairy's job a little easier. I decided to take on the challenge of making one for my son based on the picture. Here was my process...

Project: Tooth Fairy Pillow

Time: About 2 hours

Skill Level: Not terribly difficult, but some sewing experience helps...

Here's what you need:

White fabric (I had some linen on hand)

A fabric for your pocket on back

Some red felt for cheeks

Ribbon for the loop handle

Black floss for face embroidery

Cut two circles out of red felt for cheeks.

Cut a square for the pocket. Mine was about three inches, and I chose to taper the sides a bit. You can easily make it a straight square to simplify things.

Draw a tooth. Make sure to make it fatter than you want it to be in the end, once it's stuffed it will be thinner! Now would also be a good time to check and make sure your pocket will not be too large for it.

Cut out two teeth. Make sure that if your fabric has a right and wrong side that you reverse your pattern for one of them.

Iron hems in place for the pocket, pin the top to hold it in place.

Stitch your top hem in place, I used red thread to contrast. Pull threads through and tie them off.

Place your pocket on the center back. Just eyeball it.

Stitch your pocket on the sides and bottom, leaving the top open for the tooth/money. Pull your threads through and tie them off in back.

Stitch your cheeks in place with a contrasting thread color. I picked white. Pull your threads through and tie them off in back.

I used three strands of black embroidery floss to make the mouth. Start and finish behind the felt cheeks, that way the black floss won't show through the white fabric. I think this is called a chain stitch, I've never been formerly taught embroidery, I just taught myself enough to be effective.

A finished mouth. You could also do this on the machine with black thread, I just chose the hand method because I like the handmade look that it creates.

There is an embroidery stitch called a french knot that would be perfect for the eyes. I don't know how to do it. I just did three stitches over top of one and other and tied it off in the back. You could use buttons or googly eyes if you prefer.

Double your length of ribbon over to create a loop and pin in the center top of your pillow front. The length that I used was about 12 inches long.

Pin layers together, make sure that your ribbon does not get caught in your bottom seam!

Stitch around the edge leaving an opening to turn it right side out. I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Also, I forgot a picture of it, but clip your curves with pinking shears to allow the seams to lay flatter.

Turn him right side out, use a chopstick for any tight areas if necessary.

Stuff your pillow and pin the opening closed. Hand stitch the opening shut to finish it off.

And here it is, the tooth fairy pillow for my son's first lost tooth. I am actually pretty pleased with the way it turned out, and even happier that everything I used was already in our house so it didn't cost me a cent!

The back, I added a button for some detail. Sorry about the picture, I tried to fix it. This is one of those times that the computer and I have agreed to disagree.