For my now two year old’s birthday this past November I had the idea to make her a large Totoro pillow.  She is obsessed Studio Ghibli movies, especially My Neighbor Totoro.  I started searching online for patterns and found this really great one. DIY Totoro Plush

But my goal for my daughters pillow was to make it bigger. So I took the idea of the blog linked above and went bigger. I started by buying fleece fabric in dark grey,  lighter grey, white, black, and cream.

Since I knew I wanted to go big (similar to the bed sized ones that I have seen online), I layed the fabric out on my queen size bed and started cutting out the major shape.


Next I took the cream fabric and traced out a belly section and cut it.

I also cut out the iconic pieces that go at the top of the belly.


Lastly I cut out the eyes and nose on white and black material. 


I stitched the mouth and nose pieces onto the front grey piece.


Next I stitched the inner black section of the eye and then stitched it to the grey front.



I then stitched the front cream belly section to the grey panel.


I then cut out two arm panels, two ears, and a tail. I put them together and stitched them leaving a section open to allow for stuffing.


For the stuffing instead of buying the really expensive stuff at the craft store, I found a cheaper alternative in buying bed pillows and using the stuffing from them.


Lucky for me I had a great helper who was super excited to help me make her little sister a Giant Totoro pillow for her birthday. 


After I had my helper stuff the arms, ears, and tail I stitched it to the body and flipped it the right direction.

The last step was to stuff the main body. I had not realized when I was cutting the material at the beginning, just how big I was making it, but the end result ended up needing about 12 bed pillows.


The end result was HUGE and awesome. My two year old was over the moon about it when she got it in November for her birthday, and now it is a prominent part of her bedroom. 


Even my six year old loves cuddling with her sister on the Totoro.


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