Easter Gift Idea for Boys: Marvel Easter Basket and an Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial

Looking for a nice Easter gift idea for boys? I partnered with Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser to create this Marvel Easter Basket and Envelope Pillow Cover Tutorial. I think you’ll love it! All opinions are mine alone. #DisneyEaster #CollectiveBias

We’ve had crazy weather this week. Some days full of bright sunshine and warm(er) temperatures, and a few of our days have been nothing but gray skies and lots of rain. The many feet of snow that fell over the last six weeks is being washed a way. It’s hard to imagine that Spring is on the way and that Easter will be here in just a few weeks, too!

This year, I’m trying to simplify things and focus on planning for all of the holidays well in advance. I’m not talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas folks. Even thought I am a planner and list maker by nature, somehow the other holidays hit me like a ton of bricks. Always.

I double checked my planner a few days ago and learned that Easter falls on April 5. That gives me three solid weeks to create a fun Easter gift for The Boy. Awesome.

We had several snow days this winter, and I’m thankful for each one. I had the opportunity to really watch The Boy in action. His imaginative play on those long days stuck inside impressed me so much. He has been spending more time playing with his Marvel Super Heroes so I was thrilled to see a huge Marvel display in the Easter section at Walmart.

I grab nearly everything I saw – it all looked so fun! There were light-up yo-yo’s

and water blasters

and mini pinball games

and buckets

and plastic eggs filled with {temporary} tattoos! I can’t wait to see the look on The Boy’s face when he sees this bucket full of Marvel{ous} goodies!

I always like to include something personal in his Easter basket – something that The Boy will not lose interest in playing with or looking at. This year, I decided to spruce up the chair for his reading nook by creating a Marvel Super Hero envelope pillow cover.

This easy, 10-minute envelope pillow cover can be sewn by a novice sewer in any fabric that makes your heart happy.

For this project, I choose a fun Marvel Super Hero pattern and a solid red for the back. Because of the pattern placement on this fabric, I opted to not use the same fabric for front and back. Remember to pre-wash your fabric to account for shrinkage.

Start by measuring your pillow. The one I used for this project was 12 X 18. Squish your pillow down to get the accurate measurements.

You want to add about 1/2 an inch for seams and about 3 inches to account for the envelope fold. I cut my front piece of fabric 12 1/2 X 18 1/2 and the back piece 12 1/2 X 21.

I used a rotary cutter and a plastic ruler to keep my lines straight. If you have a steady hand, you can use a pair of sharp fabric scissors.

Cut the back piece of fabric in half. Pin a 1/2 inch seam along the longest edge of each piece and sew. {These two pieces will eventually become the envelope.}

Lay your front piece of fabric right side up, place the back piece of fabric right side down along the top edge of the front piece of fabric. Pin in place.

Then, place the second back piece on top, overlapping the sewn edge of the back piece to form your envelope. Pin in place.

Now sew all the way around the edges. Remember to remove the pins as you sew; you don’t want to sew over those!

Clip your corners and turn your pillow cover right side out. Ta-da!

Insert your pillow and you’re done.

You’ll spend most of your time washing, drying, and ironing your fabric for this project. The actual hands on time is about 10 minutes! Once you make one, you’ll be making these little beauties for all of the pillows in your house!

Do you like to include something handmade in your child’s Easter Basket?