Cute Christmastree Pillow for Little Ones (Tutorial)

When I was thinking of presents to make for the kids for Christmas I found it hard to come up with something for my little boy. He is just one year old. He will play with anything, really. 

But what would be kinda special to him?

So I tried to come up with something that would go well with things he likes ...

He loves to cuddle! :-)

He will carry around stuffed pets and cuddle them. Steal little bear's - my daughter - tiny pillow. Try to haul away the big bear that is almost his own size ... 

Also he loves to play with small things. Take things apart. He especially likes when taking things apart is accompanied by some noise.

And he is totally fascinated by the Advent calendar I made for little bear some years ago.

SO ....

This is what I came up with:

A soft cuddly pillow in a Christmastree-shape with Christmas baubles that attach with velcro  

and therefore make that odd ripping sound when you pull them off. 

He is going to love that! ;-)

And I figured maybe you also have some little guy - or girl - at home that would like one. So here is a tutorial on how to make it.

Sorry, I should have included more photos. But I was kinda hurrying to get it all done ... 

It is easy though! So I am sure you can do it even if there is not a photo for each single step!

Here is what you need:

- fabric for the Christmas baubles - I made 6 baubles and used 6 different cotton prints

- green fleece

- matching thread

- paper for pattern

- scissors for cutting your pattern

- fabric scissors or rotary cutter

- velcro

- stuffing

1. Make your pattern

This is really easy. All you gotta do is figure out how big you want your pillow to be and draw a simplyfied treeshape (triangle with a stem) on a big piece of paper. I used some wrapping paper and newspaper. 

When you have your treeshape figure out how big your baubles should be (all the same size or different sizes) and how many you want on your tree. Make a pattern (or several patterns if you want different sizes) for the baubles, too.

2. Cut your fabric

Cut two pieces for the tree out of green fleece. Remember to add your seam allowance!

Cut two pieces for each bauble you want to make out of your cottons - or whatever you use for the baubles*. Here also add your seam allowance.

3. Make the baubles

Take two fabric circles and sew the hooks of the velcro to one fabric circle.

Then sew the circles together with the right sides facing each other - leave a hole for turning!!!

Turn the bauble and put some stuffing in there if you like. Close the hole by top stitching around the whole bauble!

Now I  have to say I was VERY surprised how hard I found it to sew small fabric circles like that! My seams turned out quite crooked. (As you can easily see in the photos.) 

I was not too worried this time as I figured little man simply will not care at all about the seams. ;-)

But I figured if I wanted the baubles to LOOK more pretty I would have used fleece for them as well instead of cottons. 

* With fleece you could just cut two circle shapes, sew on the velcro and sew both shapes together left side on left side! So NO TURNING. Just cut the fleece close to the seam - and that would be it!

Repeat this step until you have all baubles finished.

4. Make the tree

Take your tree-shaped fleece and play around with your baubles to figure out where you want them to go.

Pin the soft side of the velcro in place. (I used the soft side of the velcro on the pillow rather than on the baubles as I figured it would be less scratchy if the kids happen to cuddle up with it withouth the baubles attached.) 

Sew the velcro in place!

Then put the two fleece pieces together right side facing each other. Close all seams - but again leave a (generous!) hole for turning and stuffing!

 Then turn inside out and it should look like in the photo above.

Stuff the tree and close the hole. I did this by hand. At first I wanted to topstitch the whole tree but decided against it in the end.

Now you can admire your Christmastree pillow and play around with the baubles. ;-)

Have fun!

And I would love to know if you make one! :-)

P.S. This pattern is for personal use only. Thank you.