How-To: Make a Pillow Without Polyfill

pillow stuffing

Stuffing Your Pillow

You’re now ready to stuff! Grab your container of scraps and thready bits and go at it. You want to pack the stuffing in as tightly as possible, and you’ll find that it takes a lot more stuffing than it looks like it will.

In fact, you might run out of scraps before you get your whole pillow stuffed, like I did. No matter! Set your pillow aside, and you can finish the project up when you’ve amassed enough tiny scraps and bits of thread to finish things off. Maybe you have some crafty friends who’d be into saving their sewing scraps for you, too?

Whether you’re able to finish this pillow today or have to save up more scraps to complete the project, give yourself a pat on the back for keeping so much waste out of the landfill.

Next >> Finishing Your Pillow

10 thoughts on “How-To: Make a Pillow Without Polyfill”

  1. So funny to see this today. I’ve been collecting my tiny scraps to use for pillows since I saw a friend collecting them at the quilt store to make dog beds for the animal shelter!

  2. If you really want to get serious about ammassing a large amount of scraps in a short time, check with a local quilters guild or quilter friends.  You may even be able to find a quilters retreat center if you can have a special bin for scraps only that quilters can put their scraps in. 

    Do you think you could also add rags like worn out undershirts or socks that are cut up?

    1. You could choose to do that, if you wanted to. I don’t think there would be any harm to you in it. You’d likely want to be very mindful of the temperature at which you’re drying your scraps and thread bits, however–it’s surprising how durable insect eggs can be.

      1. Freezing your scraps for a good period of time (say a few days to a week) will kill nearly everything. For extra measure soak in a 50/50 vinegar water wash for another day or two. Then launder, highest temp if possible. I’ve done this with things that moths or silverfish have gotten into and have never seen them return as a result of incomplete cleaning.

  3. We made some of these years ago when my scraps were getting out of control! We called them brick pillows because the scraps make the pillows so much heavier than the polyfill.

  4. I’ve recently been making a quilt style blanket out of tshirts and after cutting those tshirts i wondered what i could do with all the scraps. This is the perfect DIY to use those scraps!

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