Personalized Pillows

I have FINALLY finished the personalized pillows I've been working on for my boys!  I started the project months ago, in my rotation of WIPs (works in progress), but it got side tracked when I ran out of poly-fill halfway through stuffing the second pillow.  Once I finally got the chance to swing by the craft store & replenish my supply, I completed the project and was quite happy with the results.

I stumbled upon the pattern for these pillows on a crafting blog I follow, called Repeat Crafter Me.  Seriously?  Sarah, the creator of the blog, is a phenom with a crochet hook!  I obsess over her designs.  Luckily, she has a talent for making her beautiful projects novice-friendly, and I'm able to try my hand at most things she shares!  I highly suggest you follow her on social media, so you never miss a post :)

Anyways, these pillows aren't actually one of her own designs, they were published on the Yarnspirations website, here.  But, either way, I found them adorable & incredibly enticing as soon as I saw them!  I just knew A would LOVE them - he's just like me, and loves anything with his name or initials!  And of course L would need one, too, because they both have to have everything the same.  Lol.  So, I got my go-to yarn (Red Heart Super Saver ftw, baby!) in blue and green, and I started my new project asap!

I'm not going to lie, I was intimidated by the patterns at first.  I've never been taught how to read crochet diagrams, so sometimes I struggle with patterns that don't use written instructions.  I decided to start with the L, because it was more straightforward.  It turns out, though, that these diagrams are easy to read, none of the techniques are too fancy, and both letters were easier than I anticipated!  I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the pieces worked up :)

I forgot to take pictures while I was making the L, but I did capture the step-by-step of the A, so here you go:

Following the patterns I linked to above, I made two of each letter.  Of course, this means that when you put them together, you'll have one with the Right Side facing out and one with the Wrong Side facing out, but because it's all single crochet, it's not really that big of a deal.  Even though the pattern didn't say to, I went around the entire perimeter of each letter with a single crochet border - I found it made the construction phase way easier!

One of two A pieces, ready to use

Next comes the gusset!  For those who may not know, this is the piece that gives height to the pillow, forming, like, the sides of it.  You could, in theory, just stitch the two pieces together, but then you'd have a flatter pillow.  The gusset makes it look more professional and cozier ;)  All you do is make a long piece, 10 stitches wide and as many rows as it takes to go around your pillow.  This is where that border on the letters comes in handy.  I counted those stitches, and crocheted that many rows - easy peasy way to get the size perfect!  Between the green L, the blue A, and my niece's cross pillow, I was crocheting gussets for days, y'all!

Something about the rolled gussets appealed to me...

this one was super long!

The final step is to put it all together.  Using a slip stitch, I connected the gusset to one of the letter pieces, all the way around.  Then I did the same thing with the second letter piece, leaving an opening large enough for my hand/arm to fit, so I could stuff the pillow.  It took Way.  More.  Filling.  than I anticipated, for reals!  Hence the running out halfway through the second letter...  but I wanted a nice, fluffy pillow, so I stuffed it super full :)  Obviously, once it's stuffed, the last thing to do is finish stitching around, to close up that hole.  You'll be left with a fluffy, cozy, awesome pillow.

Gusset attached to one side - you can see how it makes the inside space

Just as I was finishing up the last stitches to close the pillow, my son came in my room & lit up when he saw these!  He grabbed his and snuggled it up, then snatched up L's, yelled "I'll give him his!" and ran into their bedroom to sleep with them that night.  So, overall, I'd say they were a hit!