DIY Fleece Unicorn Pillow with Free Pattern

Learn how to make your own adorable DIY Fleece Unicorn Pillow with this free pattern and tutorial! A wonderful gift for anyone who loves unicorns!

Today I’m so excited to share this sweet DIY Unicorn Pillow with you! This is by far the softest and most cheerful pillow I have made and I just love how it turned out. The mane is my favorite part and was so fun to create!

Last week I finished up making my daughter’s Halloween costume – a pony costume made from fleece! It turned out so cute and my daughter loves it! While making it, I had the hardest time figuring out how I wanted to do the mane and tail. After a few failed attempts, I thought tying the fleece like you do on those fleece no-sew throws would work – and it did!

Making the pony costume got me thinking how cute a unicorn pillow could be using the same tie method for the unicorn mane! So after I finished up the pony costume, I made this cute DIY Fleece Unicorn Pillow!

The pillow was easy to put together – it took me two nap times (how I measure the length of all of my craft projects!) and was so fun to make! I love all the different fleece colors in the mane and how sweet the fleece flowers are on the front. The pillow is so cozy and will look cute as a decorative pillow in my daughter’s room. Below is the tutorial with tons of pictures as well as the free pattern so you can create one too!

If you’d like to see the cute pony costume that inspired this pillow, check it out here “DIY Pony Costume“. I love using fleece for not just pillows but also costumes since it is so easy to work with :)

I made a Christmas version of this pillow, check out my Holiday Unicorn Pillow Wreath.  

How to Make a Unicorn Pillow

Supplies Needed

• Free printable pattern – grab the free pattern by filling out the purple form at the end of this post
• White Fleece
  • (1) 13″ x 13″ piece
  • (2) 9″ x 13″ pieces
  • Extra piece for ears and horn
• Fleece scraps in a variety of colors for mane and flowers
• Gold fabric scrap for unicorn horn
• Black felt
• Glitter fabric scrap for inside of ears
• Gold and black embroidery floss
• 12″ x 12″ square pillow form
• Small piece of Wonder Under for eyelashes

Step by Step Tutorial

Step One: Cut the pieces needed to make the pillow.

Download and print the free pattern. Cut the pillow front and pillow back pieces from white fleece. Cut the front to measure 13″ x 13″ and the two back pieces should measure 9″ x 13″. Use the printable pattern to cut the rest of the pieces. Follow step two for cutting out the eyelash pieces.

You will need four outer ear pieces cut from white fleece, 4 inner ear pieces cut from gold glitter fabric and horn pieces cut from white fleece and gold fabric. The pattern notes which pieces need seam allowance added to them.

I had a tricky time finding gold glittery fabrics that were machine washable and wouldn’t leave glitter all over the place. I finally found a smooth gold satin for the horn and I found a gold glitter cotton in the quilting cotton section at Joann Fabrics.

Step Two: Create the eyelashes!

The eyelash pieces are appliqued on to the front of the white fleece pillow. Start by laying a piece of Wonder Under over the printable pattern, with the paper side up, and trace the eyelashes with pencil. The Wonder Under is see-through so you can see the pattern underneath.

Cut the eyelashes out, leaving about a 1/4″ all the way around. Iron them onto a piece of black felt.

After the felt has cooled, cut the eyelash shapes out along the pencil line with a small, sharp scissors. Peel off the paper side of the Wonder Under and iron the eyelashes onto the front of the pillow. I used a ruler to make sure they were centered.

Using black embroidery floss, stitch the eyelashes down with a small running stitch.

Step Three: Create the unicorn horn!

To make the unicorn horn, place the fleece horn piece on the wrong side of the gold horn piece. Wrap the gold fabric around the fleece, pining in place, and then machine stitch down.

Fold the horn so the opening is at the back and use pins to hold the horn closed. Draw diagonal lines on the back of the horn with a washable fabric marker or lightly in pencil. Using gold embroidery floss, stitch along the lines using a running stitch. Be sure your stitches look nice from the front of the horn where they will be the most visible. The running stitch lines will hold your horn closed.

Step Four: Create the unicorn ears!

To make the unicorn ears, stitch 2 of the inner ear pieces together, right sides facing each other. Turn inside out and then stitch onto the front of one of the outer ear pieces (shown in the picture below).

Once both inner ear pieces have been added to outer ear pieces, you can stitch the outer ear pieces together – right sides facing each other. Turn the ear pieces right side out and they are ready to be attached to the pillow!

Pin the ears and horn to the front of the unicorn pillow. The ears should be positioned 1/2″ in from each side, since the pillow will be stitched together using a 1/2″ seam allowance. The horn should be centered and pinned with right sides together. 

Step Five: Create the unicorn mane and form the pillow.

The mane is created with different colors of fleece. I chose to use 7 different colors. If you use 7 colors like I did, you should cut two pieces from each color that measure about 3″ x 5″.

Arrange the mane pieces on top of the ears and horn. Start pinning your first color of fleece along the top of the pillow after the ear and stopping 1/2″ away from the other side. You are pinning both pieces of each color at the same time. Continue pinning fleece pieces down the side, again stopping 1/2″ from the bottom. 

I threw a couple extra pins in to make sure the points of the ears wouldn’t get caught as I stitched the pillow closed.

Arrange the back pillow pieces of white fleece on top of everything, right sides together. You now have a fleece sandwich with white showing on both sides and the colorful mane, horn and ear pieces inside.

Stitch around the entire pillow using a 1/2″ seam allowance. I was worried it may be too thick, since I was sewing through four layers  (five layers in a couple places) of fleece, but I didn’t have any problems. My machine is a workhorse though, Bernina 1001. If you have problems sewing through four layers, I’d recommend trying to sew through the three layers first without the pillow backs. This may help flatten things and then you could sew the pillow backs on. You could also sew around the pillow by hand with thick thread and a tight backstitch.

Once the pillow has been stitched together, clip the corners and turn inside out!

Now all the mane pieces, ear pieces and horn should be sticking out!

Step Six: Tie the mane!

The next step is to tie the mane. Cut the colorful fleece sections into thinner strips. I wasn’t sure how wide to make my strips so I started to cut each color section into two strips, but then changed my mind and went with three. Three worked much better so I’d recommend cutting each color section into three even strips.

When you cut the strips, make sure you are cutting through both layers of each color so the strips will be the same size. Cut to about 1/8″ away from the pillow. Tie the strips together in double knots and the mane is finished!

Step Seven: Create the cute fleece flowers!

The last step is to add the cute fleece flowers to the front of the unicorn. I think this added so much and really finished off the pillow! Cut a strip of fleece for each flower that measures about 1″ x 7″. Fold this in half and scallop one edge.

Hand sew a running stitch along the straight edge – making sure to tack it in place on one end so it can’t pull out.

Pull on the running stitch, which will gather up the fleece creating a flower! Stitch the flower ends together.

Stitch the flowers to the front of the unicorn pillow right under the horn. Cut small pieces of fleece in circles or hearts and hand stitch them to the center of each flower.

Pop a 12″ x 12″ pillow form into the pillowcase and the DIY Fleece Unicorn Pillow is finished! I really love how soft and cuddly this pillow is and how fun and colorful it turned out! My daughter is a little young for the unicorn craze happening right now, but I couldn’t resist making something with unicorns! I think this pillow would be fun for any age and you can go crazy with the colors you choose for the mane!

I was careful to keep all of the fabrics I used machine washable, since I knew this would be for my daughter. The polar bear fleece pillows I made a few years ago have held up super well with so many washings. I am a little curious how the unicorn’s felt eyelashes will fair when washed, I’ll have to try it and report back! :)

I hope you enjoyed this fun unicorn tutorial! If you make this, or any other Crafting Cheerfully craft, be sure to tag me with #craftingcheerfully so I can check it out! Have a wonderful week! I’m hoping to post pictures of my daughter’s pony costume – which was what inspired this fun unicorn pillow in the first place! :)

Get the Free Unicorn Pillow Pattern!

Fill out the purple form below with your first name and email address! The free file will be sent straight to your inbox plus you’ll receive my fun email newsletter with more free files and DIY craft tutorials. 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 :)