Eeeeep! Time for another food-turned-pillow post. I’m having so much fun making all these different pillows! This time, we’re throwing it back to a childhood favorite and making circus animal cookie pillows! HEHE! This was one of the most common answers when we asked what your favorite junk food as a kid was way back when. Aren’t they cute as pillows!?
DIY Circus Animal Cookie Pillows
Total Time: 1 1/2 Hours
Supplies
1/2 yard Pink or White Felt per Pillow
1/4 inch pom poms in rainbow colors
Sewing Machine
Hand Sewing Needle and Thread
Pins
Fabric Scissors
Poly Stuffing
Hot Glue Gun
Printable Animal Cracker Templates
Chalk or Pencil
Directions
1. Print out the templates, if you'd like to use them. You'll need to print them at 200% size at a local print shop (unless you have a large scale printer) to make them the size our pillows were. You can also use our templates as a guide and freehand your own shapes!
2. Trace your template onto your felt twice and cut both shapes out.
3. Pin the two pieces together and stitch around the entire outside with your sewing machine with a 1/2" seam, leaving a three inch gap at the bottom of one of the feet.
4. Clip the seam along the inner curves before turning right side out. This makes the seam smoother once you stuff it! Turn right side out.
5. Stuff the pillow. Make sure you get stuffing in all the little areas on the animal, like the elephant's trunk and the rhino's horn.
6. Hand stitch the opening closed using a slip stitch.
7. Place a bead of hot glue on the back of a pom pom and glue it to the pillow. Repeat with as many pom poms as you'd like!
Photos by Kelly Mindell
Soooo simple you could make a whole army of them! By the way, if you don’t sew, I bet you could totally use no-sew glue for this project. That is, until I teach you how to sew in our upcoming series!!!!
p.s. A cereal bowl cake!
Julia says
Oh my.. I love these so hard!!
Robert Gawron says
It`s weird but I suddenly felt that I need to creat my own…
Charlee says
I love them! you got the shapes just right!
Kristina says
These are so cute they’re making me hungry 😉
www.kristinadoestheinternets.com
Gabby says
I believe the moment I saw these my heart skipped a beat! 😀 They’re just so brilliant!
Terrie says
These are so awesome! They look just perfect 🙂
Michelle says
These are too cute, especially for kids I suppose!
https://www.makeandmess.com/
Vicki says
These are too cute!! I love them!!
Hannah says
What a great idea! I’m totally having nostalgic flashbacks to my childhood love of circus cookies.
xx Hannah // www.HomemadeBanana.com
Gabriella says
These pillows are so stinkin’ cute. I remember loving these cookies so much! Of course I need them in pillow form 😉
Katie Smith says
I love these so much! They actually remind me of the animal cracker thumb tacks I made last year- http://www.punkprojects.com/2016/03/get-messy-thursday-season-of-happy-week.html
Now I think I need to make some of these pillows! <3 Ooh, you should do gummy bear pillows!
Katie Smith says
Oops, In that last comment I meant to leave this link- http://www.punkprojects.com/2015/03/diy-resin-animal-crackers.html
“I love these so much! They actually remind me of the animal cracker thumb tacks I made last year!
Now I think I need to make some of these pillows! <3 Ooh, you should do gummy bear pillows!"
Suzanne says
Cute thumb tacks! I would die for a gummy bear pillow!!!
Trina and Tina says
These are so dang darling! Our sweet grandma used to buy us ice animal crackers. Thanks for the idea!
Suzanne says
The most epic pillows ever! Thank you for sharing.
K says
This is amazing!
nisha says
Do you think I could use hot glue instead of sewing?
Laura says
These are amazing! I will try to make a few ones but in different colour! 🙂
Laura
arinna says
This is just too adorable! Makes me feel like a kid again. I love your site and your creativity! Thanks for sharing you with the world!
vgrit original says
I love these cookie
Roberta says
So fun and cute! I am sharing this on Pinterest.
Cindy deRosier says
I’m the Editor of Fun Family Crafts and wanted to let you know that we have featured your ADORABLE pillow idea! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/circus-animal-cookie-pillows/
If you have other kid-friendly craft tutorials, we’d love for you to submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can get one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a great idea!
Sandra says
Hi Kelly. Thank you for sharing this project to us. We included it on our round-up post here,
http://sewuber.com/make/easy-kids-sewing-projects/
Please feel free to contact us if you want to add something.
Cheers,
Sandra
P.s. Loving your blog!
Anndrea says
You said that if i wanted to make the pillows the size you made them I would need to make the doc 200%, what I was wondering is what size would that be? What would the dimensions be at 200%?
Taylor Sauce says
I love these cookies!
( https://www.thetaylorsauce.com/new-york-summer-in-the-hamptons/ )
Amanda says
OMG! I have just died a little! These pillows are happening this week! 🤩🙏✨
Dana Colovich says
Thank you so much for the templates to make these. They will be good gifts for toddlers to teenagers! We are wrapping them with a package of circus cookies.