Easy Mother’s Day Pillow DIYs

Create a personalized gift for the women in your life with these easy to make Mother’s Day pillow DIY ideas! These four projects range from very simple, so kids can make them, to easy enough for a beginner to craft. Mothers and grandmothers will appreciate the thoughtfulness of a personalized handmade gift this mother’s day.

Family Outline Pillow

Turn a family picture into a beautiful and unique pillow with this project! Here’s how to make this mother’s day pillow:

1. Choose a photo that clearly shows each member of the family, and remove the background. I like to use this free Adobe site to remove backgrounds from photos.
2. Import the image to your cut file design program (I use Silhouette Design Studio). Outline the image and add the text. Mirror the image and text before you cut it.
3. Cut the image from infusible transfer ink sheets. (I used this one.) You can also use vinyl if you prefer.
4. Place the image on the pillow case (I used these polyester cases for sublimation) and iron it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Fill the case with a pillow insert of your choice. I used the always fluffy Poly-Fil Premier Pillow Insert because I love how full and soft they are, and they never lose their shape.

Hugging Hands Pillow

This sweet pillow will give mom or grandma hands to hold when you aren’t around! This project is easy enough for kids to make; just use fabric glue instead of the fusible interfacing.

1. Fuse a sheet of felt fabric to Stick Double Sided Fusible Interfacing. I place the interfacing on a piece of baking parchment so I can fuse it to the felt.
2. Place the child’s open hand and arm on a sheet of felt fabric. Trace it with chalk.
3. Cut out the hands, arms, and a heart shape.
4. Fuse the felt fabric onto a pillow cover.
5. Fill the decorated pillow cover with pillow insert like Crafter’s Choice.

Garden of Names Pillow

Since we’ll be dying these pillows we can’t use the polyester pillows that we used in the first two projects. I used a large t-shirt as a base, or you can purchase an unfinished white cotton pillow case instead.

1. Use clear white glue to write names on the white cotton fabric. Let the glue dry completely. You can use colored chalk to mark lines on the fabric to help you keep the names in line.
2. After the glue is completely dry, dye the fabric. I used a one-step dye kit to do this. Follow the package instructions to dye and rinse the fabric.
3. Use Oly-Fun fabric to make flowers in a variety of fun and bright colors! Use fabric glue to attach the flowers to the ends of the names.
4. Fill the pillow with your favorite pillow insert, like Decorator’s Choice.

Typography Pillow DIY

Use names or birthdates to create a simple, modern pillow gift.

1. I used birthdates to create my pillow design. Use your cutting machines software to add the numbers and lay them out as desired.
2. Cut the numbers from heat transfer vinyl. Remember to mirror them before you cut! Note: if you don’t have a cutting machine you can purchase iron on numbers to make this project.
3. Iron the numbers onto the pillow case.
4. I filled this pillow with Poly-Fil Fiber Fill, which is an alternative option if you don’t have any pillow inserts to work with or if you are making these as a group project.

Which of these fun and easy mother’s day pillow DIYS will you make first?