DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Lost Tooth Pillow

My oldest daughter Tasha has always wanted "someplace neat" to put her lost teeth... she's always worried the Tooth Fairy won't find them.

Sherri sent in this idea the other day and I put it together right away.  Tasha was absolutely tickled and her little sister Kaitlyn can't wait to lose some teeth so she can use it too.

The project requires either sewing or hot glue skills.  A child of age 7 or so could do the project with adult supervision.  Younger children can help stuff the project and would love to receive it as a gift from an older sibling, parent or grandparent.

You could put in rice instead of stuffing to make this more of a "bean bag tooth" than a pillow.

Materials:

• two pieces of white felt  (tooth and hands)
• one scrap of black felt  (mouth)
• one scrap of felt in another color  (pocket)
  • I used blue felt for the pocket in my photo
• two wiggly eyes.
• small piece of velcro
• hot glue gun OR sewing machine OR needle and thread
  • The one in the photo was hot glued
• pillow stuffing OR cotton balls OR toilet paper
  • The one in the photo has pillow stuffing
• scissors,
• scotch tape
• printer and paper

Instructions:

• Print out the templates (see bottom of this page).
• Cut out the template pieces.
• Scotch tape the tooth template to one of the pieces of white felt.
  • Cut the tooth shape from the felt
  • I scotch tape templates onto felt instead of pinning them as I find it easier...  It doesn't "buckle" as much.  It's very easy to just pull any tape off the felt after cutting
  • Make sure you scotch tape liberally!
• Repeat with the second piece of felt.
• Scotch tape the hands to the leftover white felt and cut out
• Scotch tape the mouth to the black felt and cut out the shape.
• Scotch tape the pocket to the other color of felt and cut out (the pocket is a long rectangle with triangle attached...  It's on the second template)

Put a line of glue on the sides of the pocket and fold up  (or stitch the pocket). Glue or sew the piece of velcro onto the triangle and where the triangle meets the pocket so the pocket will hold shut when the tooth is inside. Glue or sew the mouth, pocket, arms and eyes onto one of the tooth pieces  (you can do this at the end after stuffing if you prefer)...  If I'm sewing, I tend to do it first, if I'm gluing I tend to do it after stuffing.

Put the two tooth pieces together and either sew them or hot glue them, leaving a space at the top to add stuffing.  Leave the face showing (we won't be turning this project inside out). If you're hot gluing, do a 2 to 4 inch section at a time (so the glue doesn't harden on you).   The less experienced you are with hot glue, the shorter the section should be. I usually have my daughter use a popsicle stick to press pieces together without getting any of the heated glue on her skin...  I just use my fingers. My 9 year old daughter has been able to use my "low temp craft glue gun" with supervision for a couple of years.

Stuff the tooth with pillow stuffing, cotton balls or even crumpled up toilet paper.  Make sure to push it down into the bottom Hot glue or sew the opening of the tooth

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).
• You need to print both templates

Template 1

Template 2

Print friendly version of these instructions