I get an idea for a gift and start Googling. When I see the prices on some of these things, I always say “I can make that for cheaper” so usually do. You can really make anything you find to buy online. This post is about how to make your own custom pet photo print cushion.

What prompted me to make this was it was Father’s Day a couple weeks ago and I wanted to give my husband something a little bit unique for Father’s Day. He’s not the father of my children and we both don’t have fathers alive anymore but he was the ‘Dad’ to our 2 fur babies.

We lost our dear little girl Bonnie a couple of months ago after 17.5 years of age. She bought so much joy to my life and my husband’s life when he moved in with us. She really took to him as well and they both adored each other.

For Christmas last year I bought him a clone of our dear girl from an American company called Cuddle Clones. (If you’d like to order your own Cuddle Clone for any pet, use the code DOMESBLISSITY for 10% off the purchase price). *Affiliate link

They really did a fantastic job recreating an exact likeness of her. I wasn’t going to attempt to recreate this one. My husband was over the moon with this gift so I knew he’d appreciate a gift with her image on it in some way.

What You’ll Need

• Electronic image of your pet
• Cotton fabric to print your image
• Tshirt transfer paper
• Scissors
• Cotton for sewing
• Cushion stuffing

How to Make

First of all, select your image. If you can, remove all the background from the photo. I do this using PowerPoint and it’s quite easy. You can read a tutorial on how to do that here.

Next, insert the picture into a Word document, stretching the photo enough so that it will use up most of the space on the A4 page. Print the page onto tshirt transfer paper. I bought these for 3 for a pack at $19.95 and only because I left it until the last minute but you could probably find the tshirt transfer paper cheaper online. Just be sure the transfer paper is suitable for the type of printer you have, ie bubble jet, ink jet etc.

Once you’ve printed the photo onto the transfer paper, according the manufacturer’s instructions, cut out around the image ensuring you leave up to around 1″ around the actual image. Cut the exact same shape for the backing of the cushion. The more random the shape of the image, the more realistic your pet photo cushion will be.

(Note: The image will be flipped when you print unless you choose to flip the image inside Microsoft Word before printing. You can find out how to do that here.)

Sew the 2 sides, wrong sides facing, leaving an opening of about 10cm at the bottom of the cushion to insert the stuffing.

Finishing Off

Turn the sewn cushion right side around (press with a cool iron if needed) and insert cushion stuffing. I had a knitting needle I used to ensure stuffing reached all edges of the cushion.

And that’s basically it. In hindsight, I could’ve used an off white coloured fabric as my dog’s legs were white so didn’t really show up well against the white fabric but my husband loved it nonetheless.

These cushions retail anywhere upwards of $30 so I saved myself a pretty penny using fabric and other materials I already had. I still have 2 sheets of the tshirt transfer paper to use for other projects. Anyone who can do basic sewing can make this as a wonderful gift for the pet lover.