Thursday, December 9, 2010

Recycle a Shirt into a Pillow!

I love to recycle garments. Mostly because I fall in love with a print and can't bear to throw something away that is so gorgeous. Recently, I discovered that the princess had grown out of a few sweatshirts that her Daddy proudly picked out for her. I couldn't bring myself to let go of them, and came up with a lovely idea! Mini pillows for her bed!

From Shirt to Pillow

They are super cute and so easy to make. I whipped each one out in only a few minutes. Here's how it's done.

1. Scavenge around for an old garment. Here, I am using a too small sweatshirt.

From Shirt to Pillow

2. Cut off the arms, hood and waistband. Make it easy on yourself and cut it in a nice square shape. Make sure you take into account your seam allowances, and leave extra at the bottom. It can always be cut off later if it's too much.

From Shirt to Pillow

3. Here's what you'll have. If you cut both sides at once, you should have two squares.

From Shirt to Pillow

From Shirt to Pillow

4. Now, place RIGHT sides together, WRONG sides out, and serge or sew three sides together. Leave the bottom open.

From Shirt to Pillow

Here's what you should have. A square with the top and sides sewn together and the bottom open.

From Shirt to Pillow

5. Turn the pillow right side out.

From Shirt to Pillow

6. Stuff it with fiberfill.

From Shirt to Pillow


From Shirt to Pillow

7. Now, to close it, fold the bottom edges in.

From Shirt to Pillow

8. Pinch shut.

From Shirt to Pillow

9. And pin.

From Shirt to Pillow

10. Sew shut.

From Shirt to Pillow

And you're finished! That was super easy!

From Shirt to Pillow

If you do not like the bottom edge, you can hand sew it shut using a whipstitch, which will give it a more invisible seam. I don't have the patience to hand sew anything, but if I were making this for someone else, I would most likely do that. For me, sewing it shut with my machine is just fine.

Here's another sweatshirt.

From Shirt to Pillow

Now, it too is a pillow. I sewed the button placket shut to discourage any fiberfill leakage.

From Shirt to Pillow

I'd love to see your garments-turned-pillows! Upload them to Pineapple Damask Group's Flickr Photo Pool

From Shirt to Pillow

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