Eight Foot Giant Squid Pillow

"I'm going to make my sister an eight foot giant squid pillow for her birthday. I found this really cool pattern on the Internet.", I announced to Jim.

A normal husband might raise eyebrow. Mine didn't bat an eyelid.

It was on.

First things first.

Emily Guendelsberger is genius. She posted the pattern and tutorial and as soon as I saw it, I knew exactly who I would make one for. You can see Emily's post here.

I found it exceptionally hard to find somewhere that sold yards of felt. Ikea Polarvide blankets are about £3 each. I used two purple and one turquoise, with plenty left over. I measured out the pattern first, converting it to centimetres as I grew up on a diet of metric.

You don't need the scalloped edge. Cut it off. Cat supervision is optional.

First the fins. I used soft toy stuffing for the fin and arms.

Sewing the body together with the fins.

Diet Coke cans for scale. And because I have a problem.

The arms. I sewed these then turned the inside out. I weighed the stuffing for each arm so they were even.

Sewing the legs onto the body...

... So it looks like this when turned the right way in.

Starting to take shape! (That is a double bed...)

Creeping on the little cat.

Giant Squid have three hearts. This squid has three hearts too.

Finished stuffing and sewing in the bottom panel. I used the rest of the toy stuffing I had and some polystyrene bean bag ball filling. Which is a mess to use.

Added the eyes on as the last finishing touch.

We weaned him on Diet Coke.

And taught him how to drive.

It's really hard to wrap an eight foot giant squid. But it was worth all the hassle. My sister loves her squid.