Saturday, February 16, 2008

Reclaimed Shirt Pillow

I know its been a while since I've posted but I made a quick project tonight that I love. Lately, thanks to our DV-R service, I've been watching Martha Stewart Crafts while I fold laundry. Martha did a project in episode 127 which involved making pillow covers out of men's button-up shirts.

So when I found this shirt at the thrift store, I knew what I wanted to make. I made a cover for the small pillow I sleep with: (its hard to photograph pinhead-sized houndstooth fabric and pearly snaps - click to see bigger, better shots)

The snaps make it a cinch to remove the cover for laundering. And I'm thinking the snapping pockets will be handy for keeping a few tissues and a chapstick handy. (I should clarify that I do not rest my head on this pillow. It is strictly for cuddling, a habit I got into when I had my first c-section.)

I'm also thinking that the buttons could become the back of the pillow if using decorative fabric for the front. I have some Christmas angel fabric that I was planning to make into pillows for the mother-in-law. Using shirts for the backs will make them look so much better and be much more functional.

It's genius of Martha to use the pre-existing plackets to make the cover washable. No zippers to set in, no velcro to trap pet hair, no blind stitching a pillow into its cover. Just cut two squares, sew them on all four sides, turn right side out, and you're done! Topstitching is a nice touch and its easy to add a flanged edge.

More photos!

3 comments:

Tally Knits said...

Thanks for adding me as a friend on Ravelry! I love your blog... those mittens and socks are lovely (and there's nothing wrong with acrylic socks... some of my favorite socks are acrylic!). Really like that shirt pillow case, it's so neat.

Anonymous said...

I was surfing the net today and found your blog. It's interesting and fun to read. What a great idea for a pillow case!

I have a site where I provide craft ideas for pillows and pillow forms. I thought it might be mutually beneficial if we swapped blogroll links.

Please take a look at my site and see if it's something you might be interested in. http://pillowforminfo.com If you are at all interested please shoot me an email and let me know the text you want me to use in your link. I'll get it up right away and then send you the text for my link.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Jackie

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