T-Shirt Pillow

One of my S.O.S. goals was to create a t-shirt pillow like Brooklyn Limestone's.  Dan has a t-shirt that he loves and wears all the time.  It's really special to him, but unfortunately it was starting to tear and fade.  When I saw the t-shirt pillow online, I thought that would be a great way for him to still enjoy his shirt without wearing it down even more.  As a throw pillow it wouldn't get too much abuse.

Making the pillow was much more difficult than it should have been for two main reasons: 1) I had never used a sewing machine; and 2) cutting the pieces of fabric required math skills.  Ugh.

I used a shirt I didn't really care about as a trial pillow.  It kind of worked, but I couldn't figure out how to close it.  I had some ideas on how to do it, but it all seemed really complicated so I decided to try again.

Trial pillow

Using math

Learning to sew!

"Finished" pillow (it doesn't close)

I attempted making a second pillow using the same method as my friend Nick.

Nick's awesome tea towel pillow

T-shirt fabric is not the same as regular fabric though.  It's terrible to work with.  It's so stretchy that getting a straight line is very tricky.  Let's say that after threatening to kill myself and everyone around me, I gave that effort up.

The smile is all fake

I searched online to see if there was a better way, and behold!  I found a tutorial that actually made sense to me.  I "borrowed" a shirt from our S.O.S. host of the day, Katie, and gave it a try.  This one actually worked!  Hurrah!

Sorry Katie, this shirt is now mine!

Feeling emboldened, I thought I was finally ready to tackle the one shirt I absolutely could not afford to mess up: Dan's prized shirt.

I took a few deep breaths, measured and measured again and then started cutting.  Pretty soon I was ready to sew.

Don't I look so confident and capable?

With a lot of help from Nick, I made this!!

It's not as wonky in real life

All in all, it turned out pretty well.  The seams are surprisingly straight and the back of the pillow looks just like it should.  The most important thing is that Dan loves it!  I'll call this one a success!