Recycled Shirt Pillows

My living room is very khaki greenish. I hate it. I know I’ve said it before but the whole World Market look we’ve got going on is well past it’s prime and so colorless. Over the last five or six years I’ve been coveting materials, shirts, and even sweaters to one day turn into pillows to liven up our bland furniture.

Last Friday I started rummaging through the stash trying to decide which wool sweaters would become DIY cloth diaper covers and which would be pillows. The kids got in on the fun and started pulling out felt pieces to make their own pillows.

I started off with the ruffled shirt, not shown, by cutting it across the body right below the arms. I pinned it together, making sure the ruffles wouldn’t get caught in the seam. Next up was the sweater; I didn’t want the bottom band to be a part of the pillow so I used a square craft mat along with a ruler as a guide.

I flipped the sweater inside out, lined the square up with the cables on the sweater, measured an inch and a half past the mat, and then cut with a rotary cutter. NOTE: Once I was done cutting I carefully pinned the pieces together immediately. Don’t try to pick them up, it will be nearly impossible to line it up again. I know from experience with other sweater projects!

Sew everything up being sure to leave an opening for stuffing. I know I probably should have made these covers so I could wash them easier but I didn’t. Anyway, we took the filling from some of our older, ugly pillows, gave it a little re-fluff and started stuffing.

I’m not so great at sewing pillows shut with the machine so I hand stitched them closed.

They look great on the couches! And yes, the irony that the first two pillows I make were beige (i.e. the blahness I was trying to get away from) was not lost on any of us!