This month I was lucky enough to have my niece and nephew spending a weekend at our house. I wanted to come up with a fun craft that the cousins could all do together to get them excited for Halloween. These monster pillows are the perfect craft for the kids to make and enjoy the entire month of October. Let your little monsters create their own little monster pillows just in time for Halloween. These are no sew fun and hard not to love for kids of any age!
I first spotted this craft idea on Pinterest via the blog Green Acres Hobby Farm where she shares a sweet tutorial on how to create a no-sew monster pillow. I thought this would be the perfect for my kids and their cousins who ages togehter are 1, 3, 4 and 5. I thought it was similar to the whole build-a-bear experience but “monster style” to suit the Halloween season. I was super excited that they would each have a monster that they created just how they wanted it, stuffed and tied together with love that they could take home with them.
The one year old was not too interested in the creative process, but the older kids really enjoyed the entire process, and it was a really fun family craft. The whole family got involved helping the kids tie, stuff, and glue their pillow monsters together.
I was super excited to find the perfect monster colored fleece at Walmart for only $2.94 per yard. I purchased 1/4 of a yard in 4 different colors (which created 8 18 inch circles). The total for all four pillows was $5.88 because I had everything else I needed at home!
You will need:
- Fleece circles (1/4 yard makes 2 circles – you need 2 per monster)
- Felt in different colors to cut eyes, spots, mouths, ext.
- Fabric Glue and scissors
- 1 bag of stuffing (1 small bag stuffed 4 pillows for us)
Because I knew that the kids attention spam wouldn’t last through prepping this project, I took a little time before the weekend arrived and gathered supplies and cut out and organized all of the monster pieces.I had enough eyes, mouths, and noses cut out for the kids to choose from. I also included different colored spots, teeth, and eyebrows. I then put each piece of the monster into labeled envelopes. I also pre-cut the circles from the fabric and the little strips to be tied together. That way I could set everything out, let the kids put their monster faces together, help them glue, and then tie and stuff the monsters with them.
Before project time:
- Cut circles out of fleece fabric 18 inches in diameter. You will need two circles per monster. Contrasting colors look great, but the kids can choose from what you have. I made one circle to start with and then traced it to create the other circles.
- make slits all the way around the circle (about 2 inches) that you will later tie together to create the pillow.
- Cut out all sorts of monster accessories: eyes, noses, teeth, mouths, eyebrows, or whatever you like. If you buy 1 package of assorted craft felt you will have lots of great colors to work with.
- Sort and organize everything so the kids can find it easily.
When the kids are ready for the project:
- First have the kids choose 2 circles for their monster
- Lay the circles flat out and then pull out the monster accessories. I did one thing at a time with the kids and they choose whatever they wanted to add them to their monster’s face. Remind them to try and keep the face in the center of the circle!
- After the kids have their monster faces completed help them to glue all of the pieces into place using fabric glue.
- Let the glue dry before moving on (we did not do so good here, and lost a couple pieces here and there)
- Once the glue is dried tie the two circles together just like a tie blanket. Follow around the circle until you have just a 3 inch gap or so left.
- Now let the kids stuff their own monster
- Finish tieing the rest of the slits in the circle together
- Enjoy your new monster friend!
It was so fun to see what the kids came up with, and how different all of their monsters turned out. My kids now carry their monster pillows everywhere they go it seems, and they love them lots. I hear that my niece and nephew are enjoying them too. I loved having them over and doing a fun project with them – let’s just say my house was filled with adorable little monsters that day, and I loved every second of it!