Lavender Eye Pillows

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I have so much lavender in my garden, and I love finding ways to use it.  Making a lavender eye pillow is a perfect fast project… and they make a wonderful homemade gift for friends.  You’ll also want one or two for yourself of course.

I harvest my lavender in the morning on a dry day.  I tie off the end of my bundle with a rubber band and then, with twine, tie a slip knot bellow the rubber band.  I dry my lavender in my basement, which is fairly dark and dry.  It takes between one and two weeks to dry completely.

To remove the flowers from the stems, place the dry lavender bundle in a large dishcloth and roll with a rolling pin.  Most of the flowers will come off and you will be left with just the stems.  Shake the blooms into a bowl.  For a small amount lavender, I run my fingers down the stems and the flowers fall off.  The girls love to help… they both love the smell of lavender as much as I do.

You can also use the lavender flowers in a sachet for your drawer, a wrist pillow for the computer or in a long neck pillow for traveling.

To make a lavender eye pillow, I found a great free pattern from Amy Butler.  Her pattern even includes a pattern for a cover and a carrying case.

To make this eye pillow you will need:

  • 1/2 cup dried lavender
  • 1 cup of flax seeds (Amy Butler’s pattern calls for 1/2 cup beans and 1/2 lentils or rice- I like the feel of the flax seed better). My local supermarket sells flax seed in a bulk bin in the Natural Foods section.
  • Muslin for the pillow (two panels 4 1/2″ x 10″)
  • Fabric for the slipcover (one front panel 5″ x 10″ and two back panels 5″ x 6 1/2″)

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Here is the flax seed with lavender.

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The pillow could not be easier, I sewed all the way around three sides, leaving a thin end open.   Then pour in the mixture.

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Fold the end in and stitch shut.

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I made the cover out of scraps of fabric from another project.  I pieced it together to have enough fabric.

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Stuffing the pillow into the cover was a little challenging, but it does go in.

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This lavender eye pillow is ready to use.  You can place it in the freezer for a refreshing cool down… this is especially nice when my eyes are swollen and puffy from allergies.   You can also place it in the microwave for 20- 30 seconds to warm it up.  Just be careful not to over heat… you don’t want it too hot on your eyes!  Heating it really makes it smell wonderful and feels so relaxing.

Silk or linen fabrics are wonderful for eye pillows.  This would be a great project to make out of an old silk shirt as well.  I also made one from an old linen pillow case that had gotten a few holes.

Lavender is so good for relieving stress… I hope you love making and using a lavender eye pillow as much as I do.


32 Comments

  2. I love the fabrics you used! I wonder, are you as bad as me at holding onto scraps of fabrics? I have bin after bin of scraps, because after all, I’m going to use them all. right? lol.

    • I have a big bag scraps that are at least 1 inch and anything smaller goes in another bag. I’m sure I’ll use some of it some day! lol

  7. I made some of these pillows for our yoga class. A huge success for the relaxation segment of our classes.

    Thanks for the tutorial, it has brought joy to many people around here.

  8. We especially like bags filled with buckwheat, I make ours with two pounds of buckwheat. they are a great bedwarmer, I put mine where my back is going to be, then move it, generally to my tummy when I get into bed, The buckwheat bags last forever, and are much safer than electronic devices we had a heating pad short out, luckily no fire but scorched, sheets, matresscover and matress, last time anything with an electric cord was in our bed.

  9. I’ve been wanting to make my own eye pillow for sooo long now! Thanks for putting these instructions up. I do have one question. Can you point me in a good direction for buying fabric like yours? It’s so adorable and I can’t find any satin fabric locally that’s as cute…it’s all pretty boring. Thanks so much!

    • The fabric I used was from a local quilt shop… it is from the Wonderland collection by Momo from Moda. That line is about a year old and it might be hard to find. I would check out a local quilt shop. They will have something just as wonderful I am sure. You can also check out some online sources for fabric like http://www.fabricworm.com/ The nice thing about the eye pillow is you need little more than fabric scraps to make it.

  10. I use to make these filled with just lavender, but i really like the weight of the flax seeds and so do about a 1 to 1 ratio now.
    I love the fabrics you used, very pretty!

  11. Hi Pam, Lavender lasts an exceptionally long time. If it starts to loose it’s smell after a couple of years, you can roll it with a rolling pin a bit. That will release more of the oils from the lavender and make it smell again. You can all put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the bag. When it finally gives up, it’s very easy to pick open the casing and refill the bag with new lavender and flax seeds.

  12. Thank you so much for sharing!
    I wanted to make these for Christmas presents but I was still searching and thinking what I would fill them with – mental note: grow lavender! I put some drops of lavender essencial oil instead and smells beautifully.
    I made three today and I’m very happy with them! :)

    Thank you!

  13. Thanks for the pattern! I just made 4 of these as Christmas gifts for my girlfriends and it could not have been easier! I love making things to give away and this is a perfect way to give my friends the gift of relaxation=)

  14. I am completely charmed by your blog and all the content. I stumbled upon it by googling homemade eye pillows and have spent a couple days just poking around your site. Yours is my favorite of the only 4 blogs that I read. Bravo!

  15. I am throwing a shabby chic baby shower for my girlfriend and her daughter to be. This will be perfect. One question. After you stuff in the muslim pillow filled with lavender into the adorable cover, do you just fold over the flap or do you stich it closed?

  17. I suffer from allergies and puffy eyes. I’ve been looking for something that I can use to help me with my eyes other then drops. I think this will help; I will let you know as soon as I make a pillow.
    Thank you for sharing.

  18. Is there an easy way to make the cover for the eye pillow? I’ve never made a sham before. Any information you can give me would be gratefully and humbly appreciated.

  19. Thanks for such a great walkthrough on making these eye pillows! I really like your blog as well – you have so many great do-it-yourself projects. I also really liked the poem by Lowell Bennion that you had on your homepage the other day. A great reminder to live in the moment.

    I used this post as a guide to make 7 of them for Christmas this year; they turned out beautifully and they were a huge hit with the recipients.

    I’ve posted my lavender eye pillow project on my blog: http://bakedtoorder.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemade-christmas-2011-part-2-lavender.html

  20. I also have a problem with puffy eyes. This is a great sewing project and it would make a wonderful gift.

    • What I was trying to type was that I don’t have a lavender tree to be able to use fresh dried lavender. Any ideas where I might be able to purchase some? I’d love to make this for my sister-in-law who is a yoga teacher :)

      • If you look on Etsy and search terms like “dried lavender” or “lavender buds”, you’ll find a great variety of sellers offering different of kinds lavender at a range of prices! I buy mine on there all the time. Plus I like supporting a small business owner :)
        http://www.etsy.com

  24. I have what is possibly a dumb question… Are there any fabrics or items (like elastic) that are unsafe to heat in a microwave? I want to make these for Christmas gifts out of silk dupioni fabric and add a little elastic band to help hold them on the eyes. But I want to make sure I’m not giving my relatives the gift of fire by telling them to heat them up :)Thanks so much for the lovely tutorial!

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