Crafting - Make Your Own Pillows from Shirts!

Its another washed out weekend here......

Instead of getting down about all the rain today I decided to put my Saturday being stuck indoors to good use and get crafting!  A few days ago I was given some shirts that were not going to be worn again by their owner.  I had been thinking what I could do with them all week then this morning I had a eureka moment!

I woke up looked out of the window at the grey wet day outside and thought...

'I'll make those shirts into pillows'.

I thought I would share what I created here as it took under and hour and is an easy peasy way to convert similar old clothes into pillows.  What's great about using shirts is like in the image below you can use the front button up placket as the opening for the inner pillow to fit in through so no fiddly zips to fit Yay!

My finished pillowcase measures 40 x 40 cm as that matched other pillows they would sit with.  I cut my front square to 42 x 42 cm giving me 1 cm of seam allowance.

On the back side of the pillow I made a patchwork of different cuts from the two shirts I used.  I cut each square to 12 cm (this gives 10 cm squares when sewn together as 1 cm will be seam allowance)  I used a total of 16 squares to make up the side then sewed them all together.  Again, once this was all sewn together it gives me a piece measuring 42 x 42 cm.

I then sewed the patchwork square to the square I cut out of the front of the shirt including the button up placket and voila!  I have a very simple 'none zip' recycled shirt pillow case.

Some of the squares I cut on the bias giving a nice contrast to the pieces.

I included details of the shirts like cuff plackets to give the pillows a real crafty feel as you can see in the above and below images.

OK a few of my pieces didn't match up exactly but it is the first time i've attempted a patchwork.  I think it shows they are homemade!

Here are my two finished pillows.  A nice new addition to our home!

You can see the chest pocket still on here too!

I made the inside pillow with stuffing from some cheap pillows I picked up off of e bay and made their shell from some old kalico I had.

I would like to try this again with old denim jeans and make a big pillow to go o our sofa.  I will keep you updated in the future!