Plush Kid's Neck Pillow

In addition to my sister's request for a makeup bag, she also asked me if I could sew up a kid's neck pillow for my nephew.  She was planning on buying one but those suckers are kind of expensive, so she figured that I could probably make one.  So I did my search on the Internet to find a tutorial on how to make one.  I pretty much knew it'd be just like sewing a pillow and stuffing it, but I figure I just check and see if there was any specific way on to make one. 

Lo and behold I found quite a lot of tutorials, even better I found one that had a pattern at the craft site Ucreate. SWEET!! I can't draw to save my life so having a pattern helped me cut the fabric as even as possible.  Since my sister lives in Hawaii I tried to find material that would be soft, comfortable, and wouldn't feel irritating against my nephew's skin on days he uses the neck pillow during hot/humid weather.  I found a soft plush material with zoo animals on it and the bonus was that it was on sale AND I had a coupon for extra off.  I bought a yard of it since I figured I'd make one for my son too and I could also make a practice one as well.

For the first pillow I made I cut it exactly to the pattern I had and discovered while stitching it up that the material is so soft that I had a hard time trying to keep the seams together.  Perhaps I needed to change the needle or whatever since I just use the standard needle.  Nonetheless, I got it stitched up and ready to be stuffed.  I used ultra plush stuffing to make it nice, soft, and comfy.  The last procedure was to whip stitch that bugger up which I loathe and could never get right....well maybe never learned how to do it properly before.  So instead I just smooshed down opening and stitched it closed with my machine...yeah lazy I know ha ha.

The end result came out alright and needed a few adjustments.  So for the pillow I made for my nephew I just added about half an inch extra material to help stitch it up better.  This worked out perfectly since I didn't have problems with stitching up the seams this time.  I wasn't particularly happy with the way I closed up the first pillow and decided to overcome my dislike for whip stitching.  So I referred to a YouTube video and got cracking on closing that pillow up.  What do you know? I think I mastered whip stitching ha ha!  Pillow #2 turned out a lot better and here it is below.

PLUSH KID'S NECK PILLOW