No-Sew Fleece Lion Pillow using the Skip-Stitch Fringe Blade

March 17, 2015

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile you guys know how much I love Skip-Stitch blades! I use the #1 original blade for all of my crochet fleece lovey blankets. So you can imagine how excited I was when the Skip-Stitch company released a new product: The Fringe Blade! The fringe blade allows you to make even cuts along the edges of your fleece fabric to make fringe style no-sew blankets. You don’t even need to prep your fabric, this blade does all the work for you by perforating the edges perfectly. I made this no-sew fleece lion pillow using the fringe blade! The fringe edge works perfectly as the lions mane. I attached a crochet face to the front of the pillow but you could also use fleece cutouts for the face and sew or even hot glue them on. Scroll down for the how-to!

Materials:
– Skip-Stitch Fringe Blade. You can purchase the blade directly from the Skip-Stitch website HERE. or purchase from the Amazon link below.
– 45mm Rotary cutter
– Fleece fabric in yellow and orange/brown.
– Worsted weight yarn in white and brown
– Two black buttons for eyes
– 36cm (14inch) round pillow. I found mine at Jo-Ann fabrics.
– Size H crochet hook
– Sharp tapestry needle (the smaller sizes have a bit of a sharper point than the large dull ones)
– Scissors
– Large round plate or bowl for tracing

You are going to want to find some thing round (like a plate or bowl) that is larger than your pillow. It will act as an edge to guide your rotary cutter/blade. The plate I used is 14″ round and worked perfectly (weird I know because the pillow is also 14″… but the pillow is puffed, not flat so I think that’s why the plate “template” worked out).

Double over your yellow fleece fabric and place it on top of a cutting mat. You will be cutting through both pieces at once! Be sure to press hard as you trace around the plate to be sure you make it through both pieces.

You can also find a tutorial for using the fringe blade HERE.

Now using your scissors, cut your fleece fabric into a circle about 1/2 – 1 inch away from your skip-stitch cuts. Don’t worry, your circle doesn’t need to be perfect.

Now you will need to cut fringe pieces from your orange/brown fabric. Make the strips about 8 inches long (4 inches folded in half) and about 1 inch thick.

With the folded side of the fleece fringe strip, pass it through both cuts on your round fabric pieces. Loop it through and pull tight. Do a couple of these before you sew on your face. You don’t want to separate your fabric because it might be hard to line it back up again.

Now lets work on the crochet face!

Lion Cheeks Pattern: make 2

With white yarn…

Magic ring, chain 1 and make 10 SC in ring, join, chain 1

Round 2: 2 SC in each stitch around, join, chain 1 (20 SC)

Round 3: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next, repeat around, join, chain 1 (30 SC)

Round 4: 2 SC in first stitch, SC in next two, repeat around, join, chain 1 (40 SC)

Round 5: SC in each stitch around, join, fasten off leaving long tail (40 SC)

Lion Nose Pattern:

With brown yarn…

Chain 8, SC in second chain from hook and each stitch across, chain 1, turn

Row 2: SC decrease, SC in next 3, SC decrease over last two, chain 1, turn

Row 3: SC in each stitch across, chain 1, turn (5 SC)

Row 4: SC decrease, SC in next, SC decrease over last two, chain 1, turn

Row 5: SC in each stitch across and continue to SC around the rest of the edges, join, fasten off leaving long tail.

Eyes: make 2

Magic ring, chain 1 and make 5 SC + 2 HDC + 5 SC + 2 HDC all in ring, join, chain 1

Round 2: 2 SC in first, SC in next, repeat around, join, chain 1 (21 SC)

Round 3: SC in first 8, HDC in next 3, SC in next 8, HDC in last two, join, fasten off leaving long tail

(the combination of HDC and SC should give it a bit of an oval shape)

Sew black buttons onto eyes before sewing eyes onto the fleece.

Using your tapestry needle, sew crochet pieces onto the fleece. Your tapestry needle should poke through with a little pressure.

Create whiskers by tying and knotting strands of brown yarn onto the cheeks. Tie tight and trim short.

Now finish tying on your fringe!

Remember to put the pillow in when you get about halfway around.

Thanks to Skip-Stitch for sharing your awesome products with me! You can find more information and links to purchase the Skip-Stitch Fringe Blade HERE (www.skipstitch.com) or from the Amazon links below!