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Back-to-School Pillow Wreath

Crafts for School | Free Sewing Patterns | Pillow Wreaths | Sewing | Wreaths

Create this fun and colorful pillow wreath! This makes a wonderful gift for your favorite teacher or the perfect decoration for your home learning space. We hang ours up every September to welcome the new school year. Learn how to make this fun wreath and grab the free pattern for an adorable pencil pillow!

School-themed pillow wreath with mini chalkboard in the center that says "Back to School".

Hello Crafty Friends! Today I have a fun new pillow wreath to share with you! This back-to-school pillow wreath is perfect for the month of September. It also makes a great teacher wreath! I have been slowly working to create a pillow wreath for every month of the year and am so excited with how this one turned out.

I have already made a bunch of pillow wreaths with themes ranging from Christmas to football. I love pillow wreaths because of how versatile they are – you can make a wreath for any holiday or theme imaginable. I attribute my obsession with pillow wreaths to my mom who made our first one around the time I was born. She taught me how to make them and now it’s a fun little hobby we share.

Back to School pillow wreath with ruler ribbons.

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I have wanted to make a school-themed wreath ever since I saw the fun chalkboard and number fabrics at my local quilt store. I paired them with bright polka dots and stripes and made some of the pillows into pencils!

I wanted to tie them with ruler-themed ribbon, which I ended up finding on Amazon. I absolutely love the ruler ribbon. I have a bunch left over so I’ll have to think of some other fun projects to use it on.

You can leave the wreath as is or add a mini chalkboard with a teacher’s name on it if it will be going on a classroom door. Below is the tutorial.

> Check out my Ultimate Guide to Making Pillow Wreaths

Back to School Wreath.

How to Make a Back to School Wreath

Supplies Needed:

Colorful school-themed fabrics and ribbon that looks like a ruler.

Step by Step Tutorial

Step One: Cut the fabric for the little pillows!

Create a cardboard pattern to use for cutting out all of your pillows. The pattern should measure 4.5″ x 5.5″. Cut out the fabric pillows. The pattern is for the entire pillow (it gets folded in half) and includes a 1/4″ seam allowance.Rectangles of fabric are cut from five different school-themed fabrics.

For the 12″ diameter wreath, you will need about 29-35 pillows, depending on how full you want your wreath to look. For this wreath I used 29 pillows made from five different fabrics – four different fabrics plus the pencil fabric I created. I cut six pillows from each of the four fabrics, and five pillows from the pencil fabric. 

Step Two: Make the cute pencil pillows.

To make the pencil pillows, I created a pencil fabric by sewing strips of black, tan, yellow, and pink fabrics together. I stitched each strip together with a 1/4″ seam allowance and pressed the seams to one side. I used the pencil pattern and cut out 5 pillows. You could cut out 6 pillows like all the other fabrics if you want. I chose 5 because that is how much fabric I had in my stash!

Dimensions for Pencil Pillow (1/4″ seam allowance included)

  • Pink 1 1/4″ height by at least 27.5″ wide
  • Yellow 2 3/8″ height by at least 27.5″ wide
  • Tan 1 3/8″ height by at least 27.5″ wide
  • Black 1″ height by at least 27.5″ wide

Dimensions listed for each strip of fabric needed to make the pencil pillow.

Strips of tan, yellow and pink fabrics are pinned together.

Strips of fabric are sewn together at a sewing machine.

Pencil pillow template lays on strips of fabric sewn together.

Step Three: Stitch the fabric pillows together. 

For each pillow fold the fabric in half, right sides together, 4.5″ side to 4.5″ side.  Sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance each side/corner of the pillow, leaving an opening to stuff the pillow. I leave the opening on the long side of the pillow.

Five pieces of fabric are folded and pinned ready to be sewn.

A multi-colored fabric pillow is stitched at the machine.

Trim the corners, flip the pillows inside out and push out all of the corners.

Two striped mini pillows; one is flipped right side out and the other still inside out.

Two mini pencil pillows; one is turned right side out.

Step Four: Stuff the pillows!

Stuff each pillow and hand sew the opening close.  Don’t overstuff the pillows making them too hard as this will make it harder to tie them with ribbon.

A mini pencil pillow is stuffed through a small opening.

Three striped mini pillows stuffed; one pillow still has a an open hole for stuffing.

The opening in the side of the pillow is hand stitched closed.

Step Five: Tie the pillows onto the wire wreath form using the ribbon.  

Each piece of ribbon can be about 8″ long. You may want to cut one and test it out in case you prefer your ribbons to be longer. Once you decide on an ideal length, you can cut them all out.

Ribbon that looks like a ruler is cut into strips.

Start on the outer ring and work your way in.  For this wreath the outer ring has 13 pillows, the middle has 10 pillows, and the inner ring has 7 pillows.  You can decide how full you want your wreath to look and always do more or less.  This Christmas wreath was made with 35 pillows; 14 for the outer ring, 12 for the middle ring, and 9 for the inner ring.

A multi-colored polk dot pillow is attached to the wire wreath frame with ruler ribbon.

Mini pillows are placed around the edges of the wire wreath frame.

I usually tie the ribbons from the front of the wreath with the ends showing. Since I loved this ruler ribbon so much, I decided to tie them from the back so the ribbon would be more visible.

Back to School pillow wreath with ruler ribbons.

 

Back to School pillow wreath wth fun colorful fabrics including tiny pencil pillows!

Step Six: Add a little ribbon loop to the back so the wreath can be hung up.

You can add a little chalkboard if you want to include a teacher’s name. I used twine and wrapped it around one of the metal rings! I wrote the teacher’s name with white paint. The wreath is all finished!

I love this little back-to-school wreath! I have mine hanging near our little “school” area and it definitely makes me smile! Have a great week!

Check out my Ultimate Guide to Making Pillow Wreaths

School-themed pillow wreath with mini chalkboard in the center that says "Back to School".

Back to School Pillow Wreath; Free pattern.Happy Crafting! -Kim

Get the Free Back to School Pillow Wreath Pattern!

Fill out the purple form below with your first name and email address! The free file will be sent straight to your inbox! If you have already filled out the form below, don’t worry – you won’t be added to my list twice! This freebie is for personal use only. I hope you enjoy crafting something special. Please let me know if you have any questions :)

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3 Comments

  1. Pingback: 31 Back To School Teacher Gift Ideas - The Crafty Blog Stalker
  2. OH my gosh this is so stinkin’ cute! I know a few teachers this would be perfect for. Thank you for sharing at Merry Monday!

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