It’s the Penguin Pillow Pattern Release day! I have shared these cutie Penguin Pillows for a few years now and always get asked for the pattern. So today is the day! Stop by Etsy to purchase the pattern.

Supplies and Where to Find them.

The Penguin Pillow is a super easy pattern to sew and you probably have everything you need to sew it! If not, here are some links, not affiliated, to a few places I love to buy supplies. Specifically the supplies for the Penguin Pillow.

Quilting Cotton: Shops like Sewtopia, Hawthorne Supply Co, and Nova Quilt Shop, are great for Quilting Cotton.

Felt: Wool or wool blend felt is what I would recommend as it is washable and ironable. I love to shop at Benzie for wool blend felt.

Iron on Glitter or Glitter felt: I used iron on glitter from Benzie for the eyes on my Penguin, but I can no longer find it for sale at Benzie. Benzie does have glitter felt that would work great though. If you want to try the heat transfer vinyl glitter, this looks like it would work from amazon.

Stuffing: You’ve got to try Cluster Stuff stuffing it’s such a great stuffing and all I can use if I can find it. I think it is pretty much exclusive to Hobby Lobby. It is definitely the superior stuffing if you ask me.

Tags: Want to up your game with tags? I get mine printed at Miss Label on Etsy. I have purchased several times from them and love the labels for stuffies, pillows, pouches, and bags. Other fun labels or tags like these from Sarah hearts or a fun patch would be very cute too.

Making a Penguin Pillow in a different size.

The Penguin Pillow is the perfect size for a small little companion pillow. It measures 11″ tall x 7″ wide. You can see the scale in the first picture from this post.

That said I included a Bonus Giant Penguin Pillow Pattern file when you purchase the Pattern to make a Giant 18″ tall x 15″ wide Penguin Pillow. So basically double the size of the original. It’s BIG.

For a perfect mini penguin that you can add a hanging ribbon to and make an ornament, or make it and use for an 18″ doll pillow like I have. Just print the original(not giant) pattern pieces at 50% for the scale. The seam allowance will shrink a bit but there is plenty of room to not have to worry about that.

To make the Giant Bonus Penguin Pillow or any reduced in size Penguin Pillow you will cut out and sew just like the instructions say to. There is plenty of space on the pattern not to have to worry about seam allowances as you shrink the pattern.

What I made!

Of course I made a few Penguin Pillows. I started with the main guy all with felt. Then I ended up making the same original size with quilting cotton swapped for the felt.

I couldn’t stop there and started reducing and increasing the size of the pattern. Which got me to the little guy that works so well for 18″ dolls, I have made a bunch for doll Quilt/bedding sets. Increasing the size got me one that was slightly larger but it was tricky to increase a pattern just with copying it since the patterns pieces all a whole page already. I had to copy larger, flip, copy larger again, and repeat then tape everything together.

Which led me to just making the Giant Bonus size file or pattern pieces that is even bigger than my original increase. The theory is that you can print this Giant at a bunch of smaller scales by reducing the % it prints at. So make a waddle (what a group of penguins on land is called) of different Penguin sizes. Or and just incase your where curious a group of penguins in water is called a raft, different than the land waddle. LOL.

Tips for sewing

Sewing small pieces that are curved can take a bit of practice. I would suggest to pin the heck out of them so they don’t shift and go slow. I often will stop around the curve with my needle down and lift the foot up to shift the fabric underneath. This works well once you get use to it on the very tight curves.

Using a fabric other that quilting cotton for the body? I used a minty like fabric for the body of one and it was tricky! A little bit slippery so top stitching other fabrics on top had some shifting. I would recommend , again, lots of pins. Also a walking foot would be helpful.

The last tip is if you are sewing batting in between the quilting cotton feet you will need to layer the quilting cotton right sides together and then lay the piece of batting on top of, or underneath, both. That way when you turn the feet right side out the batting will be on the inside. Think in terms of the two fabric right sides together touching each other are the exterior pieces anything else layered on top will be on the inside. Don’t forget to cut the extra 1/4″ around the sides and bottom of the feet and tail, but no the top edge. That way they will end up the same size as if cutting from felt.

Ideas

Wouldn’t a Rainbow of Penguin Pillows be so much fun to make? As usual I have so many ideas of how I could sew up one of my patterns but not enough time. I hope you will try out some fun colors or different fabrics and share with me.

Email me here, message me on Etsy, or share on social media with the hashtag #woollypetalspenguinpillow and tagging me @woollypetals .

Next up for me is to make it using Shannon Cuddle or Minky Fabric for my daughter. She is not a fan of the feel of quilting cotton. What?? So I always try to make things for her from a softer fabric. Flannel would work great too. See?? so many ideas!

Penguin Pillow Pattern HERE.

P.S. Pair it with my Penguin Social Quilt for the Perfect Present.

Thanks so much for stopping by!