How to Sew a Puff Quilt {free tutorial}

Sew up an easy and cute quilt that looks like of lots of little pillows. Well, some might call it a comforter because there is no quilting involved. Whatever the name, this puff quilt is adorable and fun and you can recruit help too – I did!

This blog post has been converted to an optional PDF that’s optimized for printing. Find it here. The blog post below is totally free to read, print, and sew! Just hit CTRL +P on your computer to print. The PDF download is inexpensive and optional.

This project is really just a bunch of little pillows sewn together… that’s what makes it so much fun.

The fabrics I used this time are called ‘The Adventurers’ by Cori Dantini for Blend Fabrics. They are so adorable and perfect for a little boy. But of course you can use any quilt weight fabrics for this puffy pillow quilt and sew one to suit anyone’ s taste.

And now on to the tutorial!

First decide how big you want your little puffs and if you want all squares or something more complicated like mine. Generally I think simpler is better and an all square pillow quilt would be fabulous. But the Adventurers fabrics include a print with little rectangular panels and I swear they totally inspired me for this tutorial! So I came up with a block and a quilt design using a combination of squares and rectangles.

I cut:

• 48 squares 5 1/4”
• 48 rectangles 5 1/4” x 8”

Remember that you need twice as many pieces than if you were piecing a regular quilt top. Each pillow has a front and a back!

Taking into account the area lost through ‘puffiness,’ the actual size of my little quilt is approximately 33” x 34”.

Place pillow fronts and backs right sides together. Sew all the way around leaving a 2-3” opening for turning. Clip corners, turn, and press.

Once you have a nice little stack of empty pillows you can recruit help!

My girl Chloe is an excellent pillow stuffer. This is a great job for kids because you don’t need to fill out the corners or do anything fussy with them. In fact, you should really stuff them as lightly as you can stand. You’ll think there’s not enough fiberfil in there, but after sewing all the edges together they firm up.

Stuff the little pillows very lightly and then sew the openings closed. You could hand sew here, but this is not a fussy project (like I said). The process gets messier as you go along, so I say tuck the pressed edges to the inside and sew the opening shut close to the edge. Repeat lots of times until all the pillows are made!

Arrange the pillows in a pleasing combination. You might have to use the floor if your quilt is large.

Overlap two pillows by 1/4” and sew close to one edge. Then flip the pillows over and sew close to the edge on the other side. You may try pinning your pillows together, but I found this step easier without pins.

This is what the seam will look like – similar to 2 rows of topstitching.

I sewed my pillows into blocks as shown and then sewed the blocks into rows. If you are using all squares you could easily skip to sewing them into rows.

Sew your rows together and you’re done. This little puff quilt is our new favorite! My kids love to lay under and over it. My husband loves to fold it up for a very comfy behind-the back pillow. Yay!

Thanks for reading!