Cute Lion Pillow

I actually designed this pattern and all the components for it. I spend roughly 3-4 hours on this, but that was only because I was doing a lot of stuff by hand. This is a relatively easy project, but this project is aimed for adults, simply because of a lot of hand sewing and I don't want anyone to get hurt doing this. Thank you for viewing this, have fun with this project! and keep sewing!

The pictures below show all the pattern pieces that i used to make this pillow. In the order from left to right, the pictures are:

1. All pattern pieces used for project.
2. Close up of smaller pattern pieces.
3. Fabric used for project; I used fleece, because i love the feel of it and it is easy to work with.
4. "main pieces" all of these parts were cut out of the light blue fleece.
5. "Other pieces" all of these parts were cut out of the darker blue fleece; I don't have a close up of the three pieces that are made out of black fleece, but they are the mouth, nose, and eye; and two small white circles for eye shine.

You will need:
1 semi circle lt blue
1 almost semi circle lt blue
4 ear pieces lt blue
2 dark blue ear pieces
1 strip of dark blue fleece about the circumstance of your semi circle and about 3-4 in tall
2 ears black
1 nose black
1 mouth black
2 eyes spots white

First separate all the patterns by color and use chalk or a sharpie (I found that a sharpie works best) and trace out all the patterns. You will notice that the front and the back are two semi circles, the way to make the actually fabric piece, you need to put the straight side on a fold so that it makes a full circle.
cut out all the pieces and lay out.
The dark blue piece of fleece that is about the circumference of your back circle (without the V in the circle) needs to be cut about every inch all the way around, but do not cut all te way down (you want it to all stay connected.)
Then place all similar piece together.

pin and sew one drk blue ear piece and one lt blue ear part together and sew. When you have both ears parts sewn (the lt blue and drk blue side will be the front of the ear)take your other two lt blue ear parts (these would be the back of the ear) and put pin good side to good side (that means put the front and the back facing each other). sew both the ears and flip them right side out. There your done with your ears!

To start the face, place and pin all the parts that need to go on the face (the face is the circle with the V in it). I hand sewed my face parts because I think it looks better, but you can machine sew it if you think you can. After you sew on the face, fold the fabric so that the face is on the inside, and pin/sew the line that i have indicated with my fingers. sew a straight line from one side to the other. Now your done with the face.

Now the mane. Pin the mane to the lt blue "back" (which is the full circle). very carefully sew all the way around the edge of the mane. the final part of the ears is very easy. stuff the ears with filling (polyester is what I used) then pin the ears face down (good side to good side) and sew along the edge.

After you have sewed the two pieces (front and back) the last thing to do is to sew everything together. place both the front and back good side to good side and pin the edges together. BUT leave a space at the bottom so that you can flip the pillow right side out. once you have the pillow pined, sew it together, leaving that space at the bottom. Flip the lion pillow right side out and stuff it until you are satisfied with its fluffiness. The last step is to pin the very bottom space together and hand sew it together.

YOUR DONE! yippy! you now have a completed lion pillow!