As promised, here is the doll bed jelly roll pillow! I have a confession. I had already put the first doll bed and bedding in the “stash” when I went to make this. My 2-year-old was hovering around, so I didn’t want to blow my cover, so I thought I could just guess the size of the jelly roll to make another one. As you can see in the pic, I underestimated the length. lol So I’m calling the big one the jelly roll pillow and the little one the Tootsie Roll pillow. I’ll give you dimensions of each, but the process is the same. 🙂
For the smaller pillow, cut out one piece of fabric at 4″ x 6″. The longer one would be 4″ x 10″. Fold and iron each of the two sides (the 4″ long sides) and hem them at 1/4″. As you can see from my second pic here, it was a little difficult to back stitch such thin fabric so close to the edge. To alleviate this prob, you can either adjust your fabric width and make a wider hem, or just don’t back stitch. 🙂
Then you’ll fold it in half the long way with right sides touching. Sew that edge all the way.
It should look like this when you’re done:
Then fold it right-side-out. It should look like a little sleeve or tube with two sides open.
I have two here since I was making these for bunk beds. Don’t let that confuse you if you’re just doing one. Sorry!
Then take one end and pinch it closed. My Tootsie Roll ones are about 1/2″ in, and the longer one is about 1″ in.
Then stitch it closed where you had it pinched.
I find it easier to do multiple front/back stitches by holding my fabric like this. But be CAREFUL!!! Please do not stitch your hand!! 🙂
It might seem a little flattened out when you’re done, but we’re going to be putting a ribbon on it anyway, so it’s no big deal.
Now use that one open end, and stuff it with fluff. As mentioned in the other small button pillow tutorial, if you’re just doing a couple of small projects and don’t want to fork out the $$ for fiberfill, you might want to try just using cotton balls from the Dollar Tree!
I packed mine pretty tight since these are decorative pieces, and you want them to keep their shape. Leave a bit out at the end, so you can get ready to pinch that side and sew it closed. Then sew it just like you did the other side. You can push your filling down a bit and then refluff after you’re done sewing it up.
Then you’ll want to cover it up with some thing pretty. I really like using sheer fabrics for these pieces. My white one shown above is from the tulle that was part of my wedding dress. And this pink is an organza. Since the color really varies depending on how many layers you put on it, I’m going to leave the length up to you to decide. My white one only needed to be rolled twice, so the original length was probably 10″ x 8″ or something close to that. But this pink needed to be rolled quite a few times to get it to look the right shade of pink for me. I also realized it was looking pretty stubby, so I chose to widen it by giving a couple inches on the sides. So this piece was about 6.5″ x 17″!
When you’re starting to roll, be sure you match your new seam with the seam on the pillow. Then roll it up!
And tie some pretty ribbons on the ends. 🙂
I hand-stitched the ribbons right onto the pillow.
And I may have broken a needle going through all those layers of fabric and ribbon! lol
Then trim your ribbon, and you’re done! I also opted to seal the edges of my ribbon with a candle lighter to keep it from fraying, but be careful with your sheer fabric when doing this! Most of them are very flammable!
And there you have the jelly roll pillow AND the Tootsie Roll pillow. 😉
Aloha,
Charlie
Here is the link for the doll bedding small button pillow. And I’ll put up links when tutorials for the other bedding items are finished. 🙂
Thanks for posting this! I need to make some pillows to go with the rest of the bedding I'm making for my niece to go with the bunk beds she is getting for Christmas for her American Girl golls.
Too adorable for words! What patience you must have!