Have you ever looked in your closet and thought to yourself, "I have way too many tee shirts that I am never going to wear again"?. Because, believe me, we have piles and piles of old tee shirts filling up our drawers. Since there is no use in having them just sit there, we decided to get creative and do a little recycling, or "upcycling" as it's sometimes called. This project is super easy, and all you need is an old tee shirt (or anything that has a patch or design that you want to save), any pattern/color fabric you like for the actual pillow, interfacing, matching thread and batting. A sewing machine is helpful, of course, but not required as this could pretty easily be sewn by hand. This really cute tee was actually a birthday gift from my Auntie Kerry many years ago. She lives in Australia where there is a lot of Japanese influence. We actually have photos of my sister and I both wearing this tee when we visited Hawaii, when I was about seven years old.
FIrst, cut out the design from the tee shirt/sweatshirt/whatever you are using. It can be a rectangle, square, circle, etc.; whatever you prefer. This essentially becomes a patch. Then cut out your pillow base, which should be at least an inch or two larger on all sides than the patch. As you can see, we decided to cut both the patch and the pillow base into rectangles. Iron the interfacing onto the back side of the tee shirt design to stiffen it up (not necessary, but it definitely helps keep it's shape), and sew it onto one side of your pillow base. I used a zig zag stitch around the edge of the patch since the tee was made from cotton jersey; the zig zag stitch covers the raw edges so that it won't fray over time. As you can see, our tee shirt had a cute design on both sides so we made our pillow double-sided. Then, sew all sides of your pillow together, leaving a small hole so you can stuff the pillow with batting. After you have stuffed it, sew the hole closed, and you are all done!! Here is an example of our pillow that was created this weekend :)
FIrst, cut out the design from the tee shirt/sweatshirt/whatever you are using. It can be a rectangle, square, circle, etc.; whatever you prefer. This essentially becomes a patch. Then cut out your pillow base, which should be at least an inch or two larger on all sides than the patch. As you can see, we decided to cut both the patch and the pillow base into rectangles. Iron the interfacing onto the back side of the tee shirt design to stiffen it up (not necessary, but it definitely helps keep it's shape), and sew it onto one side of your pillow base. I used a zig zag stitch around the edge of the patch since the tee was made from cotton jersey; the zig zag stitch covers the raw edges so that it won't fray over time. As you can see, our tee shirt had a cute design on both sides so we made our pillow double-sided. Then, sew all sides of your pillow together, leaving a small hole so you can stuff the pillow with batting. After you have stuffed it, sew the hole closed, and you are all done!! Here is an example of our pillow that was created this weekend :)
How cute is this pillow? Have any tee shirts you can see making into a pillow?