Make a No-Sew Tooth Fairy Pillow

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I love taking my sons to the dentist and helping them learn about their dental health. I’m lucky—both of my sons took up the tooth brushing habit very easily. I remember when I was a kid my parents were not so lucky. My siblings and I fought back about brushing our teeth all the time.

While dental health is important, it changes as kids grow. Right now, my sons are young, and the idea of doing something my husband and I do every day like brushing teeth is exciting to them. Using a toothbrush is exciting. And at some point soon, my sons will start losing their teeth naturally. But when my youngest son lost his first tooth at 18 months, I wasn’t prepared. He lost his tooth because of a simple playground accident. I’m still healing from the trauma knowing that my son’s smile will have a hole in it for the next 7-8 years. But one way I coped with the trauma was by making him a Tooth Fairy Pillow.

My son lost his first tooth at 18 months.

The accident was quick. He simply slipped on the playground and hit his mouth against a bar. It didn’t look like a bad fall, and he only cried for a minute. There was no blood. When I looked him over, I noticed right away that half of his tooth was gone. I silently freaked out since there was another family right there and told my husband we had to leave. Our son chipped a tooth.

I know this happens all the time, but when it happens to your child, it seems way worse. Chipping any tooth is a nightmare. But for me, I was especially upset that he chipped a front tooth. I knew it was bad; we could see a pink dot. I called our pediatric dentist. Our son had just had his first visit that month. After sending her photos, she confirmed that he would likely need the tooth removed. There wasn’t much else they could do to save it if the nerve was exposed. My poor guy was going to have a tooth extracted.

Losing a tooth earlier than expected is traumatic, but children are resilient.

I was so lucky. My husband could tell that I wasn’t going to be able to stomach the events of the appointment. At the last minute, he took our son to the dentist to have his tooth pulled. My husband told me that it wasn’t a great experience—that it looked painful and miserable and it was everything we thought it would be. Of course, our dentist was amazing, calm, and reassuring throughout the procedure. When I spoke with her afterward, she mentioned that my son held very still and was an angel for the procedure. Of course, he was. He’s still smiling despite the ordeal he went through.

When it came time to place the tooth under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy, we realized we didn’t have a place to put it. My son doesn’t use a pillow yet! My eyes flew open when I realized that I didn’t have a Tooth Fairy Pillow for him yet. Days later, I created pillows for my sons because you never know. I hope we don’t have to go through this again, and that my sons lose their teeth naturally when they are supposed to. But now, we are prepared!

Make a No-Sew Tooth Fairy Pillow

NOTE: I made this with hot glue, but if you are feeling up for it, you can do all of the hot glue steps by sewing instead. With this method, it took me about 30 minutes to make the Tooth Fairy Pillow.

Materials

  • 2 sheets of felt
  • 1 sheet of white felt
  • Ruler
  • Marker
  • Scissors
  • 1 hot glue gun
  • Several hot glue sticks
  • Cotton filling

Directions

  1. Measure the short edge of a sheet of felt. I used 9″ x 12 ” sheets, so my short edge measurement came to 9″.

2. Measure the length of the short edge along the long edge and make a mark. Do this to both sheets of felt.

3. Use the ruler to draw a line from your mark down the short length of the sheet of felt. Do this to both sheets of felt.

4. Cut the felt sheets. Keep the scraps handy. You should have two square pieces of felt.

5. On the white sheet of felt, draw a tooth that’s about half the length of your pillow. Since my pillows are 9″ x 9″, the tooth is about 5″ tall. You can either freehand the tooth, or you can use a template.

6. Cut out the tooth.

7. Using a scrap from one sheet of felt, cut out a small heart. It should fit inside the tooth. Glue the sides and bottom of the heart to the tooth; leave the top unglued. The heart will be the pocket for your child’s tooth and for the Tooth Fairy’s gift.

8. Next, glue the two squares of felt together on 3 sides.

9. When the glue is dry, carefully turn the pillow inside out. Stuff the inside with cotton filling. You can also use newspaper, cotton balls, or scraps of fabric if you don’t have cotton filling. Stuff the pillow with more stuffing than you think you need.

10. Carefully close the open side of the pillow by pinching the felt so that it’s folded in on itself. Glue a small section and press tightly until the glue is dry. Continue to pinch and glue small sections until the pillow is completely closed.

11. Inspect your pillow and snip off any remnants of hot glue along the edges.

12. Glue the tooth to the center of the pillow. Test the pocket by inserting a potential Tooth Fairy gift. Your child’s tooth will likely fit if the gift fits.

13. Give the pillow to your child when you talk about the Tooth Fairy. You can also use it as a way to talk more about dental health and explain why brushing teeth is so important.