So I thought I should go into a little more detail about how I made the Totoro pillow. Inside is a 2 inch thick piece of upholstery foam (nothing special, just the kind you can buy at Joann's). Joann's didn't sell a pre-cut piece as long as a wanted, and I didn't feel like hunting down an elusive store clerk (those guys are rarer than jackolopes) to buy the kind you can custom cut, so I bought two pre-cut pieces, a large one for the body and a small one for the head. I glued the pieces together and carved the body using an exact-o knife. Totoro is basically just two overlapping circles, so I used a pen and string to make nice perfect circles before carving. To help keep the foam together in the long run, considering I had to glue it, I made a cover for it out muslin before insert into the outer pillow case (Totoro). Besides the upholstery foam, I also made a Totoro shaped pillow insert to give him some extra fluff. The extra fluff nicely conceals the hard spot where I had the glue the foam together. Also, Totoro is pump in the movie, so he needed some extra fluff. :)
The outer pillow case is made of super soft fleece. I made the body details using an applique technique. His tummy, eyes, etc. were made using different felt colors and Pellon Under Wonder. After ironing the applique to the main body, I used a zigzag stitch around the borders to make sure they stay secure forever. And that's it! Time for a nice long sit......
