Charm Pack Floor Pillow Tutorial

August 04, 2025 • Tutorials

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We spend a lot of time on the floor in my house. The older twins are very into card games and Milo thinks he can play along. Usually we end up crowded around the living room coffee table and these little will be great for them to perch on while we play. They'll also get used for our floor pallet movie days and summer reading I'm sure! So, how do you make these?

Well, today on the blog I'm going to share all about how I made these Charm Pack Floor Reading Pillows for the kids in my new fabric collection from Moda Fabrics - For My Boys. There are a lot of different style floor pillows out there, but ultimately I started with this one as a guide and made some changes as I went along. I have a whole stash of charm packs in the boys' collections so I wanted to use them. I also wanted my finished pillow to be a bit larger. I also reversed this so that the panel is actually the front of my pillow and the backing is just solid fabric.

Moda is the home of the charm pack and they have a fabulous YouTube tutorial showing how to use a charm back to create Half Square Triangles here. Grab your charm pack, give this a watch and meet me on the other side!

Materials:

Charm Pack as mentioned above!
Background Fabric: You could use another solid charm pack or cut (18) 5" x 5" squares from some solid fabric in your stash
Muslin (for the interior form): 24 ½" x 24 ½" piece, 32" x 32" piece
Pillow Filler: I used bean bag filler but you could also use a 4" upholstery cut to maybe 23" x 23". You could also use leftover fabric scraps to be a little more green! Or you can always use good ol' stuffing. I purchased a 75L filler bag and that was plenty for one pillow with just a little leftover. I purchased a 100L for the other two pillows to share and I could have used just a smidge more to be honest!
Batting: You'll need one 28" x 28" and one 36" x 36" (I stitched all my small scraps of leftover batting to get these pieces!)
22" Zipper: I used an invisible zipper but you could use any zipper or you could simply stitch your pillow shut with an invisible stitch once you're done! I wanted my covers to be able to be removed and washed.

Using a zig zag stitch I pieced all my scraps of batting together for these pillows. It was a great way to get rid of my stash and free up some space in my closet!

Main Pillow Assembly:

Sew all your charm pack half square triangles together! You will have a 24" ½" x 24 ½" square when you're done.

Henry & Oliver got to choose their own layouts for their pillows. I used this as an opportunity to teach them about the sewing machine. They each got to sew the top of their pillows together! I wrote all about it in this blog post: Tips for Sewing with Kids.

Baste this to the 28" x 28" piece of your batting. You have the option here to add another piece of old fabric or muslin if you wish, but I quilted mine with just these two layers.

Quilt as desired. I simply followed the lines created by the blocks, but if you're needing some extra inspiration I've write two blog posts with easy quilting designs you can try at home on your machine:

Once you've got it quilted - trim this down to a 24 ½" x 24 ½" square.

Next, let's tackle the back. Baste your backing fabric to your 36" x 36" batting piece. Quilt as desired. Again I didn't use muslin on the back and I went with a very simple quilting design.

Trim this piece to 32" x 32" and cut away a 4" square from each corner. These will become our boxed corners of the pillow.

If you're using a zipper now is the time to attach it. Center it on one end of the pillow and attach the two sides - one side to the backing of your pillow and one to the pillow top. Now you'll have two edges that are attached.

To create the boxed corners you'll take the two little 4" cuts and pull them right sides together. Sew those edges together with right sides together leaving a ¼" space from the bottom. Do this to all four corners.

Now flip the Charm Pack quilted top so that right sides are together with the boxed bottom of the pillow. Make sure to leave a bit of the zipper open or if you're going to hand sew this shut put pins in to remind yourself where to stop and start. Sew around the perimeter. I actually used a little over a ¼" seam (closer to ⅜") because I wanted to make sure this was a really secure seam and catch all the layers.

Once you've made it all the way around you can turn it right side out through the zipper or opening you left. Make sure to really push those corners out!

Pillow Insert Assembly:

Using your 24 ½" x 24 ½" and 32" x 32" muslin pieces - you essential follow all the steps above without the quilting. Remove the corners of the 32" x 32" piece. You'll cut away 4" squares from each corner. Then, just like above you sew those corner piece together to create a square, cubic piece leaving ¼" space from the edges. Starting on one edge sew the 24 ½" x 24 ½" piece around the top edges with right sides together. Remember to leave an opening for yourself to add your filler of choice!

IMPORTANT NOTE! If you're using a bean bag filler only fill the insert about 75% full. You'll have a much easier time getting it into your outside pillow through the zipper. I tore mine the first time and had to repair the zipper! I had to remove the form and dump out a lot of filler. (The pillow you see below was my initial fill and it was WAY too much!)

Add your filler and sew it shut. Since this was going inside I didn't worry about using an invisible stitch. I wanted this super secure so I used my machine and sewed across this edge making sure to add a big backstitch at either end. Put this in your outside pillow cover and you're done!

Additional Details:

You can also add a handle to your pillow! I thought about ordering a simple webbing or leather handle online, but ended up just making one quickly like the original blog post mentions. I had the fabric so - why not! Add this to the opposite side from the zipper before you sew the whole pillow shut.