Notebook Doodle Pillow

There’s nothing better than a project with fun personality, customization and color! This notebook doodle pillow is the best thing next to drawing in the margins of homework, because you get to keep it and show it off all year long. It’s also an excellent one to do with kids, because they get to pick their own doodles, design their own “notebook” page, and then color it all in however they like, creating a magical keepsake!

First things first: I am making a 14” x 14” pillow cover. If your pillow form is a different size, adjust your measurements accordingly.

In order to have enough space to have the hooped fabric be nice and taut; be sure to cut the fabric wider than needed. For my pillow, I cut a 22" x 22" square.

The next step is creating the "notebook page” using stitches on your sewing machine.

First, use disappearing ink and a straight edge to draw a line 4” away from the edge of the fabric. Do this on all four sides of the fabric to make a 14" x 14" square. This is the border of your pillow cover.

Next, we’re going to mark where our “notebook” lines go.

Mark and draw a straight line 2” away from the left border line you just drew. This is the “red” notebook line.

Next, mark and draw a straight line 2” away from the top border line you drew. This is our first “blue” line, which usually starts a little down from the top on real notebooks.

Finally, mark and draw a straight line 1” away from your first “blue line” marking. Repeat this step down the pillow as needed until you reach the bottom. These are the main blue lines of your “notebook” paper.

Confused? Don’t be, it’s super easy! This diagram shows what your marks should look like when you’re finished.

That first mark was our “red” line 2 inches away from the left edge, our next one was marking our first "blue" line two inches down from the top, and the following lines are all the other blue lines of the notebook, each about one inch apart.

Now we’re ready to sew our notebook lines with colored thread. First, sew the horizontal lines with blue thread. Then, sew the one vertical line with red thread. You can go slightly over the edges of your border to make sure your lines will be caught by the edge of the pillow.

For this example, I used only one line of stitching for my “notebook” lines. If the desired look is to have a thick line; use a “top stitching thread” or simply add another row of stitching directly over the original stitch line.