DIY Tooth Fairy Pillow (Tutorial)

Sophie starts Kindergarten this fall. When we toured the classrooms at Kindergarten Roundup earlier this spring I noticed a chart listing all the teeth various students lost during their Kindergarten school year. That poster brought up all sorts of questions from Sophie. Will it hurt? Who is the Tooth Fairy? Why does she want teeth? Does she pull my teeth? Can she give me prizes instead of money? (The Tooth Fairy will be more than happy to give prizes instead of money).

When I was a child my sister and I both had special Tooth Fairy pillows. After realizing I could make at least three pillows (one for each of my girls) for less than the price of purchasing one pillow from Etsy or ebay, I went into DIY mode.

I let Sophie choose the fabric. I really like the print she chose for the main pillow portion. I personally would have chosen a different print for the pocket, but Sophie loved these two prints together. My only "rule" was that she could NOT pick any licensed fabric (e.g., Disney, Hello Kitty, etc.). I'm not a fan of highly commercialized cartoon images and feel prints and solids create a boutique quality product.

Items Needed:

• Two 6” x 6” squares of fabric for pillow
• One 4” x 5” contrasting fabric for pocket
• 27” of 5/8” grosgrain ribbon (12” for handle and 15” for bow embellishment.)
• Initial badge pin (Hobby Lobby $.99) 
• Poly-fil or pillow stuffing of your choice

Directions:
For the pocket, fold over all four edges, WRONG sides together 1/2" and sew.

Pin the WRONG side of pocket to the center of the RIGHT side of one pillow square (so both the pillow square and pocket are RIGHT side facing you). Sew sides and bottom of pocket to pillow square.

Pin 12” of grosgrain ribbon on the RIGHT side of the same pillow square at the 1” and 5” locations. Make sure your ribbon handle is pinned DOWN from the top edge looping down toward the pocket. Make sure your pins are lower than your seam allowance so you can remove them once you turn your pillow right side out.

Sew the pillow fabric RIGHT sides together leaving a small opening to turn the fabric right side out. Remove pins which held the ribbon in place.

Stuff the pillow with poly-fil, fabric scraps, recycled plastic sacks, or whatever you wish to use as your stuffing. Sophie enjoyed getting to do this part. Hand-sew opening closed.

Add the initial badge pin to the pocket and hand-sew a bow (made from 15” of 5/8” grosgrain ribbon) onto the pillow at a diagonal.

The back looks like this...



Sophie, Piper, and Riley love the way their Tooth Fairy pillows turned out. It was a fun and quick little project in which they could participate. Now I better let the Tooth Fairy know she needs to stock up on prizes rather than money for the teeth in this household.

Our Summer Visit to the Hatch Farm

My in-laws live on a farm in northwest Nebraska just 18 miles from the South Dakota border. Last week we made the 13 hour drive so we could spend time with them on their farm. Because Judd's dad, Dave, is recovering from shoulder surgery, we extended our visit so Judd could help out around the farm with all sorts of chores and projects.

Judd was able to get much accomplished and couldn't have been happier fiddling around with manly man equipment and tools [insert manly grunts here]. He used a backhoe, built the roof on a very large outdoor dog kennel, assembled a new swing, organized a garage, replaced light bulbs in the barn, leveled the front door and replaced the handle. Judd hauled and placed heavy metal cattle panels to secure cows in a pasture in South Dakota. He repacked wheel bearings and grease in a tire from the cattle trailer. He used an air compressor, drill, electric screw driver, files, hammers, etc. throughout the week. Judd shot rifles and pistols (more manly grunting) and had a fantastic time. You'd never know he spends most of his days in an office building as a financial adviser in the the city of Tulsa.

We took the girls swimming at the same pool Judd worked at as a lifeguard when he was 17 years old.

The girls took turns driving the golf cart while Judd played played 9 holes.

We visited lots of family members and played several card and board games. There was an official Hatch family reunion and an unofficial DeWitt reunion. We had a picnic at the park, a large fireworks display (courtesy of cousins Jason, Jana, and Paul), and attended the Gordon fireworks display at the fairgrounds as well.

Sophie, Piper, and Riley danced with their cousins Elyse and Graham in the gazebo at the park.

I was able to get to the old high school track to run a couple of miles on a few of our mornings. I also ran in the town's "4k on the 4th" memorial race. It was a last-minute decision to and I ended up still parking my car when the race started. Because it was small-town Gordon, I just turned off my car, left my keys on the floorboard, and took off running down the street to join the others already in progress.

We love to ride the 4-wheelers when we visit the Hatch farm. Originally, we tried pulling the girls in a tiny trailer, but the trailer tires kept going flat. So, we unhooked the trailer and I took one girl at a time for rides on the 4-wheeler. It was fantastic. All three girls loved going fast and yelling "Wee! Wahoo! Best day ever!"

Sophie - 5 years old

Piper - 3 years old

Riley - 3 years old

We had many other activities and visited lots of people. It was a wonderful trip.



The Hatch girls enjoyed their summer visit to their grandparents' farm.