Tai Dam pillow — white cotton, eight-section kapok-stuffed, 18×30×12 cm. Pillow ends with eight-petal flower patchwork; black cotton cover.

"Start by sewing eight white pieces of cloth together lengthwise into a honeycomb-like cylinder, stuffing the eight tubes tightly with cotton wool so that, viewed from the outside, it appears to have four ridges stacked in two layers." (Sirindhorn Anthropology Center, author Thanwadee Sukprasert, CC BY 4.0)

Sew eight white cotton pieces together lengthwise into a honeycomb-like tube. Stuff the eight tubes firmly with kapok, forming four puffs stacked in two layers. Sew two pieces of fabric to close both sides, resulting in a rectangular pillow shaped like a brick. Width 18 cm, length 30 cm, height 12 cm.

Fold the prepared colored fabrics, such as orange-red, yellow, green, and white, into petals to make 12 flowers, each with eight petals (eight-petal flower pattern). Use small pieces of mirror glass or silver sequins as the flower centers. Sew six flowers on each end of the pillow.

Envelope-style pillowcase sewn from plain black cotton fabric with no pattern, covering the pillow without hiding the pattern at the pillow's edge.

Actual image of a Tai Dam pillow (Sirindhorn Anthropology Center, author Thanawadee Sukprasert, CC BY 4.0)

Used as a headrest in the home; Tai Dam women prepare it as their own furniture after marriage.

Pillow-making is an important craft of Tai Dam women, passed down through mothers. The eight-flower pattern comes from the belief in the eight Thaen deities who protect those who wear this pattern. Other popular patterns include the lotus-petal pattern and the star-flower pattern. Be careful with needles and scissors. Source: Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, Folk Tools and Utensils Database, "Tai Dam Pillow", author Thanwadee Sukprasert (license CC BY 4.0) **Limitations** The source does not provide petal sizes or step-by-step petal-folding methods. It has no product listing for kapok filling and mirrors, so this is noted in the text.