The Ultimate Guide to Pillow Wreaths

Hello Crafty Friends! Are you interested in learning how to make pillow wreaths? This post is for you! With over a dozen pillow wreath tutorials on my blog, I decided it would be handy to have one ultimate guide. Here you’ll learn all the different ways you can make pillow wreaths, how to choose your fabric, plus tips and tricks I’ve learned while making dozens of wreaths.

DIY Pillow Wreaths

What is a Pillow Wreath?

If you are new to pillow wreaths, they are cute wreaths made with tiny pillows! Small fabric pillows are created from fabric, stuffed with poly-fil, and tied onto a wire wreath form using ribbon.

My pillow wreaths are usually made with 12″ wire wreath forms. I use a basic template (that you can download for free!) to create my pillows and when finished, they measure about 2″ x 4″. I also love using charm packs to make my pillows, which create slightly longer pillows. Each pillow wreath uses about 28-35 pillows depending on how full you want the final wreath to be.  

There are many different ways to make pillow wreaths including using larger wreath forms, smaller sized pillows and even different shaped wreath forms like heart-shaped or square. There is no wrong way to make a pillow wreath! They are fun, simple sewing projects that are great for both beginner and experienced sewers.

A Little Backstory

I owe my love of pillow wreaths to my mom. She started making them in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Every holiday season she hung one up that matched the fabric stockings and tree skirt she also handmade using the same cotton fabric.

I loved these Christmas decorations so much that when I got married and started a family of my own, my mom made me my own set of stockings, a tree skirt and a pillow wreath that all matched using the same fabric. They are one of my favorite parts of Christmas and I look forward to getting them out of storage each year.

I loved the Christmas pillow wreath my mom made me so much, but it was only out during the Christmas season. I decided why not make one for every month! My mom and I started making wreaths together. We split fat quarter stacks to make matching wreaths and dug through our fabric scrap bins to find the perfect fabrics. We have gifted each other pillow wreaths over the years and also made them for family and friends. 

12 Months of Pillow Wreaths

I am happy to finally have one pillow wreath for every month of the year, plus a few extras! I hang them inside on our entry doors and love switching them out every month. My Home Sweet Home Pillow Wreath hangs up all year round. It’s versatile and is one of my favorites!

Choosing the Fabric

One of the best parts of a pillow wreath is how nicely it showcases beautiful fabrics. I started out making pillow wreaths as my mom originally did; by choosing about 5-6 fabrics that coordinated well together. We often started with a couple fabrics from our stashes and then went to the fabric store to find a few more matching prints.

Another great fabric source is fat quarter stacks and in the last couple years I have started making my pillow wreaths using charm packs and 5″ stackers. Fat quarter bundles and charm packs are a fun way to create a wreath from an entire collection of fabrics.

Favorite Sources of Fabric

1. Search your stash: Pillow wreaths are a great way to use up smaller remnants of fabric you may have in your stash. Try to find 5 pieces of fabric that coordinate together and can fit about 7 pillows. Each pillow is 4.5″ x 5.5″ so a piece that is about 18″ x 11″ would fit 7 pillows.
2. Fabric by the yard: Purchase 5-6 prints of fabric that coordinate together. A quarter yard is plenty if you do 6 different fabrics. 
3. Fat Quarters: Fat quarters are quarter yards of fabric but cut wide to measure 18″ x 21″. Purchase 5-6 fat quarters depending on how full you want your wreath to look and how many prints you want to include. You can get up to 12 pillows for each fat quarter. Choose 6 fat quarters and you can make two pillows wreaths. 
4. Fat Quarter Bundles or Fat Quarter Stacks: These are fun to use because the prints will all coordinate together beautifully. These fabrics are usually from the same collection or curated to coordinate by a quilt shop. Often sold in stacks of 10 or 16 fat quarters. These are great for making multiple wreaths as gifts or sharing the bundle with a sewing friend!
5. Charm Packs / 5″ Stackers: This is another fun way to use fabric from a designer’s collection. Choose a charm pack with 42 precut 5″ squares and each square will make one pillow. A wreath using a charm pack will have many different prints and colors but they will all coordinate together. Instead of using my template, simply fold each square from the charm pack in half. Finished pillows from charm packs measure 2.25″ x 4.5″.
6. Mini Charm Pack (Moda Candy): Similar to using a 5″ charm pack but the pillows are tinier. Each pillow is made with two 2.5″ squares. You will need two mini charm packs for one wreath. 

Tips for Choosing Fabric

• Decide on a theme for your pillow wreath. Make one for a holiday, season, sports team, college, or to feature a fabric collection you fall in love with!
• Mix and match prints. Pick prints that look nice next to each other and vary in pattern and scale. Don’t be afraid to mix florals, plaids, stripes, polka dots and solids. To keep the wreath cohesive, choose an overall color scheme. In my Home Sweet Home pillow wreath, I mixed florals, solids and a buffalo check but the blue and white color palette pulls everything together.
• Choose different colors. Try to avoid choosing fabrics that are too close in color. This will make it easier when assembling the wreath since you will have more options when picking which pillows should go next to each other. My St. Patrick’s Day Wreath is mostly green but I made sure to use varying shades of green.
• Use filler fabrics with special prints. If you find prints that are perfect for your theme, find filler fabrics that coordinate. For example with my Football wreath, we found two football fabrics and then filled in the rest of the wreath with polka dots, solids and stripes that matched the colors. There was no need to find five football-themed prints. This works well for licensed fabric, fabrics specific to a sports team or college as well as character fabrics.

Choosing the Ribbon

Choosing what to tie the pillows with is an important part as it can add to the overall feel of the pillow wreath. For example, my Mom and I chose a sheer black ribbon for our Halloween Pillow Wreaths because we thought it felt ghosty and reminded us of bats! 

Most of my wreaths use 3/8″ ribbon, but sometimes I like to switch it up! For my Back-To-School wreath, I used the cutest ruler ribbon! For my Summer Picnic Wreath I used raffia, and for my Patriotic Pillow wreath I used ribbon with stars on it.

Tutorials for Making a Pillow Wreath

While I have over a dozen pillow wreath tutorials on my blog, I make many of them the exact same way. Below are quick links to tutorials showing different ways to make the wreaths. 

1. Basic Pillow Wreath Tutorial using my free template
2. Charm Pack Pillow Wreath
3. Mini Charm Pack Pillow Wreath
4. Pillow Wreath with Pencil Shaped Pillows

Moda Fabrics has also shared another way to make a Pillow Wreath. They simplified the pillows by stitching them so the pinked edges of the charm squares are visible on the ends. These pillows are really cute and remind me of candy wrappers.

Best Tips for Making Pillow Wreaths

I try to include tips in each tutorial, but thought I’d add them here in one convenient place!

1. Try not to overstuff the pillows. It will make it really challenging to tie them on.
2. Work in an assembly line. I like to cut all the pillows, then sew them all on my machine and then the rest is hand-work. 
3. The hand-work is perfect to do with a good movie! Turning, stuffing, and stitching them closed is all handwork I have done while watching movies, while outside watching my kids play or even while on road trips :)
4. There’s no need to untie pillows. If you need to move pillows around after tying them on, simply slip them out of the ribbon ties. No need to untie them or cut your ribbon.
5. Arrange the pillows and snap a picture before starting to tie them on. The picture is not only great to reference while tying the pillows, but it will also help you to see if you have clumps of the same colored pillows together.
6. Add cute things in the center of the pillow wreaths for a fun twist. I’ve hung wooden coasters, mini chalkboards, and embroidery hoops in the center of my wreaths.
7. Use cinnamon sticks for autumn and winter wreaths. Tie a few cinnamon sticks on the pillow wreaths for the winter months. (This was how my mom originally made her holiday wreaths!). You could also fill a couple pillows with potpourri.

Links to All of my Pillow Wreaths

Below are links to all of my pillow wreaths. I have included the fabric source for each in case that is useful!

1. Happy New Year Pillow Wreath (Fat Quarter Bundle)
2. Valentine’s Day Mini Charm Pack Wreath (Mini Charm Pack – Moda Candy)
3. St. Patrick’s Day Pillow Wreath (Fabric yardage and fabric scraps)
4. Easter/Spring Pillow Wreath (Fabric yardage and fabric scraps)
5. Floral Pillow Wreath (Charm Pack)
6. Summer Charm Pack Pillow Wreath (5″ Stacker)
7. Patriotic Pillow Wreath (Fabric from my stash!)
8. Sunflower Charm Pack Pillow Wreath (Charm Pack)
9. Back-to-School Pillow Wreath (Fabric yardage)
10. Halloween Pillow Wreath (Fat Quarter Bundle)
11. Thanksgiving/Autumn Pillow Wreath (Fat Quarter Bundle)
12. Christmas Pillow Wreath (Fabric yardage that matches my Christmas stockings)
13. Sports Team Pillow Wreath (Fabric Yardage and Fat Quarters)
14. Home Sweet Home Pillow Wreath (Fabric from my stash – the floral fabric was leftover from Easter dresses my mom made my sister and me when we were little!) 

Supplies For Making Pillow Wreaths

These are the basic supplies I use for my pillow wreaths.

• Fabric – search your stash, check your local quilt or fabric store, or shop online. I like looking for charm packs on Fat Quarter Shop.
• 12″ wire wreath form and heart-shaped wire wreath forms.
• Poly-fil Stuffing
• 3/8″ ribbon – I use 1/8″ ribbon for my mini charm pack pillows.
• Thread
• Point turner
• Pins
• Needle
• Fabric scissors (I also find small embroidery scissors are useful too!)

Download the Free Template

You will find a free template for the pillow wreath in my Free Resource Library. It is under “Sewing -> 4. Pillow Wreaths“. I use the same template for all of my pillow wreaths unless I am making them using charm packs/5” stackers and then a template is not necessary. You will also find the pencil pillow pattern in the library for my Back-to-School wreath.

I love creating pillow wreaths and hope you will give one a try! Once you make one, it is hard to not make more. They are fun to hang in your own home and they also make beautiful gifts for family and friends!