How to make a Girl Scout Patch Pillow (Part 1)

Recently, a friend tagged me in a post on Facebook of a picture of a pillow. This wasn't any old pillow, this one was special. It was one that someone had made for all the patches their Girl Scout earned over the years. There's a lot of patches, badges, journeys, awards, etc. going on in Girl Scouts. We had been looking for a way to commemorate all the years our girls have been in Girl Scouts, and by God, I think she got it!

The picture was just a picture of the pillow. There was no link back to a tutorial on how to make the Girl Scout pillow. So, I sat down and sorted out a pillow design and a plan for a Girl Scout Patch Pillow-Making meeting.

Just in case you have already read part one: Visit Part Two.

What you will learn to make in this tutorial:

Now, really, anyone who knows how to sew on a sewing machine, even just a little bit, can do this project. It's just a little time consuming. Getting to the finished product took me several days. Preparation is key. If you read through this thoroughly, you will see bold Tips where I could have saved myself some time and frustration.

Materials:

1. Sewing Machine
2. Transparent Nylon Thread for sewing on the patches
3. Girl Scout green Thread for assembling the pillow
4. Straight pins
5. Daisy, Brownie, Junior, and Cadette vests (or fabric matching those colors and weight)
6. Patches, pins, and Journeys sorted into each year earned + one set of insignia emblems
7. A stapler
8. A ruler
9. Pinking Sheers (if you don't have pinking sheers good sharp scissors will do)
10. One 18 inch All Purpose Zipper to match your vest material
11. One 18 inch square pillow form or poly-fill stuffing

Step one: Preparing your patches

This took me the longest because I had a mix of sewn on and ironed on patches. Some of you may just have bags of patches just waiting to be used, like I said, the girls get lots of them.

Turn on your favorite show, pull out your seam ripper (or scissors), and get to work. Carefully rip enough stitches off the back to free the edge of your patch, then rip away. BUT, be gentle because I found out some of my stitches were so tight I tore through the material. Always keep in mind, you will be using the vest material for your Girl Scout Patch Pillow.

As for the patches you ironed on, a lot of those will just pull right off, adhesive and all. Tip: For those more stubborn patches, warm up your iron. Just heat up the backside of the patch. The heat will help with removal and leave the vest pretty much ready for cutting.

Tip: I had my Ziploc bags labeled and ready for sorting as I removed the patches (NOT!). I threw the things in a pile and had to do double duty after everything was removed. Take my advice, don't do it like that. Try to sort your patches by year/grouping as you remove them. You will be a much happier camper when you get to patch placement.

Step two: Preparing your material for the backside of the pillow

I decided to put most of the smaller patches and Journey groupings on the backside of the pillow. I cut four 8.5 in x 8.5 in squares. One of each color: Daisy (blue), Brownie (brown), Junior (green), and Cadette (khaki).  Use the cleanest, most presentable parts of the vests for your pillow squares.

Now, our group opted not to do Cadette vests or sashes this year so I went to Walmart and found the closest thing. It was much cheaper than going to the Girl Scout store and buying a Cadette vest. Plus, the design I came up with called for extra material. I purchased one yard of heavy khaki material for just under 7 bucks, which is enough for at least four pillows using my design. If you're only making one pillow, 19-20 inches of material will do. However, you will have leftover scraps.

Step three: Patch placement on the backside of the pillow

Take your four squares and pin them right sides together. You are creating an imaginary 1/4 inch seam, blue to brown side by side and green to khaki side by side.  (You can mark where the seams should be on each square instead. However, I like the idea of seeing  how the patches are working together). Once your squares are pined, pin the top, blue/brown to the bottom green/khaki. Again, with an imaginary 1/4 inch seam allowance.

Blue   Brown
Green  Khaki

• Now, I'm sure you see a pattern here. You have four squares. If your girl was only in girl scouts for two years, say Brownie to Junior, you could do the back side of the pillow like this:

Brown Green

Green Brown

Now place your patches! Blue should have your Daisy patches. (This square I used as a flex square for extras because my daughter did not start Girl Scouts until Brownies). The brown square is for Brownie journey's and patches. The green for Juniors and so on. Tip: don't forget your seam allowances for the outer edges you did not have to pin! 

You're still going to have a lot of patches, I'm sure. Don't forget you will still have room for them on the front side of the pillow. I decided to not use duplicates either. I reserved the front side for the larger patches, troop insignia, and pins. The back for the smaller patches and Journeys.

You don't have to follow my patch placement. Do what works for you!

Huge Tip: Don't even bother trying to pin those blasted patches on for sewing. After umpteen failures, several bent pins, and ten bloody fingertips, the light bulb went off in my head. Use a stapler to temporarily attach the patches for sewing. However, don't forget to remove the staples after the patches are sewn on. Also, don't use a traditional staple remover to pull those little buggers out, it may damage your material. 

Remove the pins you used to create the seam allowance for patch placement. Now thread your machine with the transparent Nylon thread (I used a white bobbin). I set my tension to 4, you should do what's best for your machine. Start sewing all those patches on each square, slowly. You'll find as you go, you can go faster on the round and square patches the oddly shaped ones are the most difficult.

Tip: don't try to assemble the four squares before sewing on the patches. Working with the smaller squares is much easier than one big one.

Step four: Sewing the back side together

Once your patches are sewn on, and staples are removed, re-pin your Blue to Brown squares, right sides together. Turn it around and make sure the squares are blue to brown and all the patches are facing the right direction. At this point I re-thread my machine with green thread. The Nylon was more expensive. And, if I made any mistakes, I wanted to be able to see them easily. 

Sew that seam and take it slow and easy. You want the seam to be as straight as possible. Your machine's foot will have to negotiate a lot of bumps during the run because of the patches.

Now do the same thing for your Green to Khaki squares.

Next we're going to attach the top to the bottom. Line up your center seams and pin them together. Be sure to press down those seam allowances to prevent a huge bump in the center of your pillow. Then continue pinning the edges together.  Turn it around and verify that everything is square and right facing.

Sew up that seam! The back side of your pillow is complete! Remove any leftover or forgotten staples and admire your work.

To be Continued...

Next post: How to make a Girl Scout Patch Pillow (Part 2)