Easy-to-Sew Fleece Pillows

When I asked my kids what they wanted to learn while we were social distancing, the oldest two knew exactly what they wanted: to learn to sew! These easy-to-sew fleece pillows were a perfect inexpensive starter project.

A pillow is the first thing my husband and I each learned to make when we learned to sew. It’s a fast, simple, and satisfying project.

a young girl sewing through a maze on paper

First, I showed my daughters the basics and made some practice sheets for them to work through. Then I realized they were ready for their first project.

Choosing Your Fabric

We chose to sew fleece pillows because it fleece is easy and, more importantly, it’s forgiving!

Mistakes aren’t readily obvious on fleece, but the best thing about it is that it doesn’t fray. This means that if you’re making something, you could leave the edges completely unfinished without worry that they’ll unravel or look unsightly!

A quick fleece project gave my girls the sense of completion and confidence they needed to keep on sewing!

Materials

For all sewing projects you’ll need:

For this project, you’ll also need:

Our fabric actually came from The Dollar Tree! They sell fleece baby blankets and one blanket is just enough for two 12″ pillows.

Prepare

Determine the size of your pillow.

Your fabric should be about 2″ wider and longer than your finished pillow size. For example, you’ll need a 14″ x 14″ piece of fabric for a 12″ x 12″ pillow.

lining up two pieces of fleece on a rotary cutting mat

Cut two pieces of fabric for each pillow.

Line up the pieces with the right sides facing each other and pin them together, leaving a 3″ portion of one side unpinned.

little hands pinning the wrong sides of two pieces of fabric together

We used one green-headed pin on one side of this gap to indicate where to start sewing. The other side of the gap has a red-headed pin, indicating it’s the place to stop.

pins in fleece indicate where sewing should begin and end

Sew the Fleece Pillows

Sew around the edge of the pillow, stopping at the red-headed pin (leave that 3″ gap unsewn).

little hands sew fleece together on a sewing machine

Snip, Stuff, & Sew the Seam

Snip the corners of the fabric in each corner, taking care not to get too close to the stitches.

little hands snip the corners off of fleece squares

Using the 3″ hole, turn the pillow inside out. If you can’t quite get the corners to cooperate, use the eraser end of a pencil and, working from the true inside out, gently push on the corners until they pop out.