Once upon a time there was a mother who stunk at remembering important, sentimental events of her loved ones (including her 10 year wedding anniversary last week, but that's a different story). So on the morning that her first born child lost his very first baby tooth, she made a mental note to send the tooth fairy that night while he slept. She got her sweet child all pumped up and excited about the tooth fairy's visit and even taught him how to neatly wrap his tooth and place it under his pillow. The next morning that dear child came to his mother and said that the tooth fairy didn't come. Worst. Mother. EVER. So she told her son that the tooth fairy must have gotten lost on her way, but she would surely come that night. And so she did, leaving more than fair market value for a first tooth due to her extreme tardiness. Therapy not included.
Gosh, I wish I would have had this tooth fairy pillow then. You simply hang it on your kid's door knob (a very VISIBLE reminder as I'm headed to bed). No creeping in their bedroom in the dark, digging blindly under their pillow.
These make great little gifts for 4 to 6 year olds... I made these last Christmas for Denny to give to each of his classmates. I'm sure none of those mothers forgot their first born child's tooth fairy visit, but I thought I'd make it easier on them nonetheless.
Each pillow features a pocket for the child to safely place their lost tooth. The sewing instructions are pretty straight forward... it's just a 5"x5" pillow with a handle on top (I used coordinating fabric for the handle, but ribbon would be even easier).
First, you'll want to make the pocket. Cut/form/iron a 3" pocket using white cotton muslin. Then iron the image directly onto your finished pocket using iron-on transfer paper (can be purchased a craft and fabric stores). You must flip/reflect/mirror the image before printing... I've attached the pdf file of the mirrored images in a link at the very end of this post). Here are the original images as well in case you wanted to print them directly on your fabric (here's a tutorial if you choose to go that route).
Center and sew the pocket on the front piece of your pillow. Once you have the pocket on, sew and stuff your pillow. Easy peasy.
*Note: If using iron-on transfer method, be careful not to iron the actual image when pressing your pocket... it will melt your image and leave you with a gunky iron. Place a scrap piece of cotton over the image if you must iron it further.
