Father's Day Crafts: How to Make a Lumbar Support Pillow for Dad

Make Dad a Father's Day gift he will love and appreciate all year long. You can sew a quick and easy lumbar support pillow, even if you are a beginning sewer. Only very basic sewing skills are required.

Having some support behind your lower back helps prevent back fatigue and pain when you are sitting at a desk or behind the wheel for a long length of time. A commercial lumbar support pillow can be quite expensive, and you can make one very cheaply. Why not make one in a whimsical print that reflects Dad's hobbies or interests, such as golf?

Once you learn how to make a lumbar support pillow, you will be getting requests from everyone, even Mom!

Materials needed:

Fabric: around 1/2 yard of your choice of fabric.

Polyester fiberfill: Enough for firmness you desire, one bag will do.

Thread

Needle

Sewing machine with straight stitch

Iron

Instructions:

1. Cut out two rectangles 17 " X 8".

2. With wrong sides together, pin the edges.

3. Sew Around the rectangle with a 1/2" seam allowance, leaving an opening large enough for your hand in the end to insert stuffing.

4. Reinforce the seam with another line of stitching 1/8 " apart.

5. Trim the corners diagonally. (See Diagram )

6. Turn to the right side. This is very important to get nice crisp corners. Insert a sharp object into corners to push them out before pressing.

7. Stuff firmly. Stuffing the lumbar support pillow is going to be somewhat of a personal taste issue, but with polyester fiberfill stuffing, it always loses its loft. So make it firmer than you want, but not rock hard. Be sure stuffing is pushed into corners.

8. Sew opening closed by hand.

Tip: To add firmness, you could use a rolled piece of quilt batting or an old towel in the center of the stuffing. You would just wrap the roll with several layers of stuffing, and then stuff around it. You still need to be mindful of the corners of the lumbar support pillow.