DIY Shield Pillow

STOP

You know the drill.

Move along if you're related to me by blood or marriage.

My sewing machine is gettin' a serious workout this Christmas.

This is actually the first thing I made, but I'm not in love with the way it turned out, so I wasn't sure if I was gonna share it.

In the end, I still think it's a great idea, so you can learn from my mistakes.

DIY gifts for little boys are HARD.

I feel like I've made my nephew everything there is to make.

So when I found this, I was all over it.

Shield Pillow

There's the link to the tutorial I used.

It was actually super easy, so I don't know how I managed to screw it up.

I thought my shape started out how I wanted it.

Then, it shrunk and got all squatty.

Hmpf.

Ah well, hopefully the 6-year-old recipient isn't too picky about his shield shapes.

All the instructions are in the link above, but I took a bunch of photos, so figured I'd post 'em. 

Just in case you needed more than one reference.

I can see in the this next photo how I didn't start out quite long enough.

It should have been about 1 1/2 times longer than it was wide.

Might I recommend NOT using chevron print.

That SOB is a $#@% to sew straight.

I've never used fleece as interfacing before, and I'm not exactly sure what it's for, but since I already had some in my stash, I followed directions and put it in.

You sew right sides together, as usual, but the fleece is added to the back of the front piece.

Make sense?

Yeah, it didn't to me either.

But when you turn it right side out, all is right with the world and the fleece is on the inside.

I put my arm straps on the opposite way as the tutorial.

It made more sense to me, and seemed to feel more natural when I had The Kid testin' it out.

Make them smaller than you think you need.

They're too big in these pictures.

I ended up having to go back and hand stitch them to make them smaller.

Grrrr.

I did a zigzag stitch a few times, to make sure it would hold during battles.

And here it is, ready to stuff.

I just used some bagged polyfill (is that what you call it?) that I aleady had in my stash.

You're wondering about my stash now, aren't you?

Throw a Dollar Store sword in the box with it and hopefully he won't care that it's a little wonky looking.  :)

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