I usually get pajamas for my kids every christmas. I don’t ever make them, though one christmas I did sew robes for all of them. This christmas I thought I’d do something a little different: I made pillows to put their pajamas in (really branching out, I know).

For my daughter I made the kitty in the first picture. I completely copied the design from a lovely pillow I saw on Pinterest, but can’t for the life of my find it now  edited to add: I based the design on this beautiful cat cushion by Jenni from Cloth & Thread. She makes absolutely gorgeous soft toys! 

The lion I made for my 6 (almost 7!) year old son. I hemmed and hawed a bunch about the design. I got great advice on instgram about what direction to take (eyelashes? eyebrows? tongue?). I skipped the eyebrows, made a tiny tongue, and trimmed the fringe to use as eyelashes.  I’m pretty happy with how he turned out–though I did forget the ears. Oops!

My youngest has been obsessed with cheetahs for what seems like forever now. So of course I had to make him a cheetah pillow. Like the real thing, this cheetah has tear lines–the lines that run from his eye to his chin. Black piping worked perfectly! And the leather I used–on all the animals–gives it a beautiful texture. My 4 year old cheetah  approves.

The back is done up just like a simple fold-over pillow. I’m keeping the secret construction bits secret, because there might just be a pattern for these guys someday…

And here they are all filled up with pjs!

It’s a little late for halloween pictures, but I had to take these after halloween.  The costumes were made in the eleventh hour and there was just no time for pictures, plus it was weirdly hot here so wearing wool wasn’t really that fun.  I used the Purl Bee pattern for the bunny hat and just changed the ears to make a cat and dog.  The kitty tail I just made up as I went along and as I went along I noticed I didn’t have any velcro, so I had to steal some off a bag. I used wool felt for the doggie and mostly fleece for the kitty and though the wool is wonderful and natural the fleece actually worked better.  It was a little harder to sew, but stands up better to kid life.  These hats are great for dress up, but I think next time I would use some elastic instead of the ribbon ties, or nothing (because really they’ll stay on just fine). Otherwise you’ll be tying and untying and freaking out that someone is going to strangle themselves.  This was actually the first time I made my kid’s costumes–I do think halloween should be a homemade holiday, but it can be a royal pain in the butt when your children want to be something different every other day.  Somehow my 3 year old decided what everyone should be and stuck with it for a week (I was to be a fairy and I did make the wings, but wire hangers are a lot harder to bend then you would think and I looked like a smashed fairy).  So even though they hardly wore the costumes on halloween, they are getting plenty of use these days.