Shark Pillow Tutorial

Using the shark template, fabric and ricrac – sew up this shark pillow! Super cute, perfect for shark week and any level of sewer. Full tutorial

I am not usually to jump on to fads…but this shark week has been fun! The shark pencil case was a delight to sew up, and after thinking for a bit, I came up with —hey, you can use the same templates and make them into applique!

Shark Pillow Materials Needed:

pieces of gray fabric to make your shark body and fin fabric

red- mouth

1/2″ X 5″ white ric rac

Heat n Bond Lite by Thermoweb

Shark Templates– Download   

***  you will need to adjust the shark template before using!  Cut out the template and then cut right down the center of the shark, from mouth to the center of the tail fins.  Then OVERLAP the templates 1/2″ and then tape into place.  This will make the shark a little more narrow.  The template was made larger to accommodate a seam down the center, which this does not, thus the adjustment.

Shark Pillow Instructions~

1)  Piece together your bits of fabric until they are large enough to cover the applique templates– this is the mile a minute method, similar to string piecing. Tutorial here is you need a refresher!

2)  Follow the instructions for the heat n bond- iron, cut out and set aside– you will need to do one additional piece which is not on the template pattern.  You will need to trace and cut the end of the shark mouth in red fabric.

3)  Sew up the size of background you need for your pillow size– I was covering a small travel pillow form that Jarom has on his bed.  The first pillow cover was the ‘what does a fox say’ {tutorial found here!}.  This made the sizing and sewing super quick and easy.

4)  Lay the shark pieces in place— tuck the side fins under the shark body

* At the mouth area you will need to put the red piece down first, then the shark body.  Take your ric rac and tuck the one side of bumps under the shark mouth.  The other bumps will be overlapping the red area of the mouth.  The ends of the ric rac will be tucked under the shark body to keep them from unraveling.

5)  Carefully fuse all pieces in place

6)  Sew straight quilting lines on the patchwork body

7)  Sew the outside edge using your favorite applique method.  For this shark, I decided to do raw edge- tutorial here if you’d like a refresher on that.

8)  Place the center fin in the middle of the shark, fuse in place and stitch around the edge to secure- Jarom did mention that it would have been slightly cooler if I had made the center fin 3-D.  I had thought about doing that, but didn’t.  Totally should have!  If you’d like your fin to pop out then make the fin double sided and then sew one end on top of the body, the top of the fin will not be sewn down and will be double sided.  Fun!

* Around the mouth area I did the 1/8″ raw edge stitch on the shark mouth and a second stitch just under the edge and on top of the ric rac to make sure that the stitches caught the ric rac and secured it in place

9)  Hand stitch buttons in place

10)  Finish making the pillow and then stuff the pillow inside.

This is great for boys…or shark lovers.  So many possibilities!  I’d love to see what you have made with this template….where are you going to put it?

Are you a shark week lover?   You’ll find the other shark pencil case tutorial here!

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