How To Make Sweet Dreams Eye Pillow

If someone hadn't given me an eye pillow much like the one we're making today, I would never have tried one. The whole idea seemed silly to me. But the first time I settled in for a little snooze with an eye pillow over my eyes, I was hooked.

One obvious function of the eye pillow is to keep light from the eyes, which is fine. But I thought it would feel kind of claustrophobic and hot, lying there on top of my face. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The eye pillow is filled with flax seed from the health food store, plumped up with a dab of dried lavender buds for a relaxing fragrance. The tiny smooth flax seeds must account for the coolness imparted by the eye pillow. The seeds are available in two types, golden and brown. For this purpose, the only difference is color. You may prefer the lighter colored golden ones if you are using a light-colored, sheer material or ribbon to make your eye pillow, but if not, choose the less expensive brown seeds (both are less than $2 a pound, so it hardly matters, really.)

The casing itself is made from 3" wide ribbon. Using ribbon eliminates most of the measuring and a fair amount of sewing, but if you are an accomplished seamstress with a cupboard full of scraps, use fabric instead. Do choose cool, smooth silks or rayons.

Use a rubber stamp alphabet to monogram your pillows if you're making some for gifts. Usually, you can use regular, not specially made for use on fabric, stamp pads for projects like this one, which will get only light use and which need not be washable. Do test your inks on scraps of your ribbon or fabric first to make sure they won't smear.

What you need for each eye pillow:

2 feet of 3" wide satin or organdy ribbon
about 1/4 pound flax seed
funnel
scoop of lavender if, desired
lavender essential oil, if desired
scraps of narrow ribbon
rubber stamps and ink pad in color that coordinates with your ribbon

What to Do:

1. Cut two 10" lengths of ribbon. If you are going to decorate your eye pillow using rubber stamps, do it now, before you sew the pieces together. Use the extra bit of ribbon to test your stamps. Not all inks come out the same way on fabric as they do on paper. It is also best to use the satin ribbon wrong side out if you will be stamping on it: the less shiny surface holds the ink better. ( If you are making the eye pillow using organdy ribbon, proceed to step 2.)

2. After you have stamped your designs, place the two pieces of ribbon together, stamped sides out. Use a narrow zig zag stitch, catching the edge of the ribbon, on your machine to sew the two pieces together, forming a tube. ( If you are going to use ribbon to close the ends of your pillow, tie one end closed now. Use smaller ribbon to tie a tight bow about 1" in from one end of the tube. Proceed to step 4.)

3. At one end of the tube, fold the opening over 1/4", then fold over 1/4" again, to enclose raw edges. Use machine with zig zag stitich to sew closed.

4. In a bowl, mix flax seed, lavender, and one or two drops of lavender oil together.

5. Use a funnel to pour the filling into the tube. Don't overfill it. For one thing, the filling needs to move inside the pillow to flow to the contours of your eyes, and also it will be very hard (possibly very messy!) to sew the opening closed if the pillow is too full. (If you are closing your eye pillow with ribbon, close this end now, the same way that you closed the top.)

6. Fold over top end of tube as above, sew closed the same way that you sewed the top.

7. Hand sew any additional decorations on your eye pillows.