In todays’ post: Learn how to make a portable “pillow bed” for your kids – perfect for spending nights at Grandma’s house or just lounging at home.
You might be asking yourself: what in the world is a pillow bed, and why would I want one? Well, a pillow bed is a pretty much just what it sounds like: a portable bed made of pillows that are connected in a row. It’s a nice way for kids to have a comfy place to sleep when they are spending the night at someone’s house without worrying about blowing up an air mattress. Pillow beds also work well as loungers for watching TV or reading books.
Best of all: kids love them! A pillow bed is a fantastic homemade gift idea.
You can make a pillow bed by sewing 4 or 5 pillowcases together, and then sewing velcro at the end of each pillowcase to keep the pillow inside. However, to keep this project as cheap and easy as possible, I ditched the pillowcases and velcro and used one flat sheet instead. Fold the sheet and sew a few straight lines and you are done!
I made a pillow bed for each of my two youngest kids. The main living area of the house we’re renting is all laminate flooring, so these pillow beds make a cozy spot for them to lounge around together.
The secret to a cheap & easy pillow bed is a twin size flat sheet. Walmart sells them in a wide range of colors for $5 or $6 each. They also sell basic pillows for $2.50 each, making a 5 pillow bed under $20. It’s a perfect handmade Christmas gift.
How to make a kids’ pillow bed
Start by laying out your sheet on a flat surface right side down (a table is easier than the floor). Your sheet should be 66 inches wide by 96 inches long. You’re going to fold in each side along the dotted lines in the diagram below. You want the final width of the pillow bed to be about 27 inches, so if your sheet is exactly 66 inches wide, you’ll fold in 19.5 for each side. (The sheets I bought varied a little in width – so I just adjusted how much I was folding in to get a final width of approximately 27 inches.)
This diagram shows what the sheet will look like once folded. The right side was folded in first, then the left side, which overlaps the right. The overlap means we won’t have to add any velcro to keep the pillows in place.
Pin the sheet together across the top and bottom. Then you’ll want to pin 4 more lines, each approximately 19 inches apart. It would be easiest to mark these lines with tailor’s chalk or something similar. It’s not necessary that they are exact, just try to space them as evenly as you can. Use lots of pins!
Take the sheet to your sewing machine and sew a line of straight stitching along each row of pins, backstitching and the start and end. I found it was easiest to sew one end first, then roll the sheet from that end up to the next row of pins, then sew that row and roll again. This kept the sheet from getting all bunched up as I sewed:
It only takes 6 seams, and you have a pillow bed cover ready to go! There will be 5 sections that are each much like a pillow sham. Stuff a pillow into each section, and you’re done.
Looking for more easy sewing tutorials? Check out these posts:
How to make a half circle skirt
The Play-All-Day dress (easiest girls’ dress pattern)
The easiest way to make a women’s tee
Theresa Allie says
Hello….wondering what your thoughts are about using regular 100% cotton fabric? Would it be sturdy enough?
Autumn says
I think that would work just fine!
Darla says
What is your seam allowance at the ends of the pillow bed. Thanks for the help.
KaDee says
Could I still use a twin sized sheet if I used king sized pillows instead? I have a 10 year old and I need something a bit bigger than standard pillows.
Autumn Baldwin says
Yes! You won’t want to overlap the two sides as much, but a twin sheet should still work.
Angelica says
I made each of my three kids one of these and I love them! They work up easily.
I first flipped it inside out and sewed the ends so that seam wouldn’t show, then flipped it right side out and sewed the pillow inserts as directed. I also shortened the length of the pillow inserts from 27″ to about 25″-26″. The whole bed fluffs up better that way. In fact, if I ever do this again, I would make it a strict 25″ long. There really is that much extra room. You can also get away with an 18″ instead of 19″ as well.
Making those adjustments made this a great finished product. Now my kids wont need to grab my pillows off my couch! Thanks again for this!
Maggie says
Thank you! I’m going to make a couple to keep on hand for camping trips- we’ll just raid the beds for pillows before we go! So much cheaper and easier to store than camp beds and we can use them for movie nights!