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Looking for a relaxing, natural way to calm you down? Here’s how to make a lavender eye pillow.

I grow a lot of lavender in my yard. It’s easy and doesn’t require a lot of care, which is the kind of gardening I like! I harvest and dry the lavender a couple of times a year and so I am always looking for projects to come up with lavender.

Here are some of the projects I’ve come up with:

• Tunisian crochet sachet
• bath bombs
• tub tea bags

A friend of mine asked me for a lavender eye pillow and I knew that this would be another great project to use up my dried lavender. Previously I made flax seed hand warmers. I knew that I just had to modify that pattern to make an eye pillow.

What is an Eye Pillow?

An eye pillow sometimes referred to as a dream pillow, is a rectangular sack filled with scents to help promote relaxation and calmness. There is a bit of weight to them and so the subtle pressure on your eyelids can be comforting.

In yoga, an eye pillow during Savasana can not only help block out distractions but also help restore balance.

The addition of lavender essential oil has numerous benefits. In addition to its lovely scent, lavender is known to help ease tension and promote a good night’s sleep.

You are not limited to lavender. Other essential oils that would work as well include Bergamot, Clary Sage and Chamomile. These also complement lavender quite well, so you could use a combination.

Supplies Needed

This is a fairly easy sewing project that can use up fabric in your stash if you have it.

• fabric – you want something soft and natural as it goes on your eyes. So tightly woven cotton or linen would be preferable.
• whole flaxseed – the oil in the flaxseed helps retain heat and is less likely to attract mold in comparison to certain grains like rice.
• dried lavender
• essential oil
• sewing machine
• cotton thread – this allows you to use it in the microwave
• basic sewing notions – scissors, thread, etc.

How to Make a Lavender Rye Pillow

This eye pillow has an optional cover that can be washed. The actual pillow itself is completely enclosed. You can use the same fabric for both or contrasting fabrics.

Here are the step-by-step directions to make an eye pillow.

• in a small bowl, combine the flaxseed, dried lavender and essential oils
• the amount of dried lavender is flexible. It adds scent and so you want some in there, but no one will see it, so there is no visual balance needed. If you have a little more or a little less, that will work too.
• start with 3-5 drops of essential oils. As it is near your nose, you may not want it to be too strong. Always err on the side of less if unsure – you can always add more later.

• cut 1 piece of fabric for the actual eye pillow – 9.5 long by 6 inches wide
• I like to press one of the short sides to help with the closing of the bag later. This is optional.

• with wrong sides together, fold the piece of fabric in half, lengthwise.
• start sewing one of the short ends; turn the corner and sew along the long end
• leave the last short end open

• clip the corner to reduce bulk

• turn right side out and press
• fill with the flaxseed/lavender mixture; a funnel can be helpful for this step
• fold the unfinished sides of the open end under and clip or pin if you wish. Remember how I pressed it earlier? It gave me creases to help with this part.
• topstitch this opening closed
• your pillow is done!

Note that the amount of filler is quite flexible. Mine is reasonably full and has good weight. You may wish to make yours a little less full. It all depends on your preferences.

The size of this eye pillow also works well for the back of the neck. I love things that have a dual purpose.

How to Make a Cover for Your Lavender Eye Pillow

For me, a cover is important as that is the piece that you can wash. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how or if you can wash the actual eye pillow. Having a separate cover is an easy solution.

This is a very easy cover – it’s basically a little bag to hold the eye pillow in. It is sewn in the same way – just not filled and with the one end hemmed and left open. The only crucial part is making it big enough so that you can get the pillow in and out easily, but then not too big.

• cut a piece of similar fabric that is 10.5 x 7
• similar to the eye pillow, press and turn under the ends of the short end twice, to help create creases for when you hem it later. While you can do it later after it’s been sewn, I find it much easier to do that now.
• I chose to do French seams as I was using cotton thread on my sewing machine to do this.
• To sew French seams, fold in half with the wrong sides together – right side up, in other words. Luckily you can’t really tell with the linen so it’s not a big deal to me.
• Sew starting at the short end and then turning the corner to do the long end using a small seam allowance – like 1/8 of an inch.

• turn so that the wrong side is not out and the right side is facing.
• sew the same way (starting at the short end) – but you will be “enclosing” the first seam you did
• this way there are no exposed ends and so there is no need to seam finish
• use a slightly larger seam allowance – like a 1/4 of an inch to make sure that the first seam is completely encased.

• now is a good time to check that your eye pillow can go in easily
• turn and press
• turn the ends of the open short end twice (remember those crease marks I made earlier?)
• press and topstitch around
• this part may be a bit fiddly as the opening is quite small. It will also be somewhat thick over the seam – just go slow.

Now you now only have a nice lavender eye pillow, but a cover as well.

How to Use a Lavender Eye Pillow

There are a few different ways you can use this pillow.

• Use it as-is while laying down. The lovely lavender scent will help relax you.
• You can also warm it slightly in the microwave – I’d start with a minute, to begin with, and see how warm it gets as different microwaves have different power wattages.
• You could also put it in the freezer to chill if you want something cooling on your eyes. I bet this would be great to reduce puffiness.

Want to remember how to make a lavender eye pillow? Be sure to save this to your favourite Pinterest board.