Shirt Pillows

Black striped shirt pillow

     I had a client bring me 6 shirts and many ties from her dad that had passed away.  She was looking to have something made from them.  I suggested pillows from the shirts.  I had done this with a plaid flannel shirt of my dad's and I love it.  She liked the idea when I showed her my pillow.

Black striped shirt pillow detail

     For each pillow I chose one shirt for the main part and a coordinating one for the cording on the edge.  I was going to make all three pillows the same size but this black one was smaller and I had to go down to a 16" square pillow.  The other ones are 18" square.

Red plaid shirt pillow

     For the red plaid shirt I had to interface the fabric as it was a quite thin material.  All of the pillows have lining and a zipper.  Because of the limited amount of fabric available when using articles of clothing, I was not able to match the plaids front to back as I would normally do.

Red plaid shirt detail

      I first cut the shirts apart at the seams and removed the sleeves.  I sewed the placket closed on the fronts and then cut my pieces.  I used the backs of the coordinating shirts to get my bias strips for the cording.  Again because of the limited size of the piece of fabric, the bias strip was several pieces sewn together.

Blue striped shirt pillow

     I then cut lining pieces and serged them to the front and back pieces.  I put a zipper in the back piece and the cording onto the front piece.  I sewed them together around all four sides and turned right side out through the zipper opening.

Blue striped shirt pillow detail

     I have seen these done using the button front as the closure.  I did that on one project but I didn't like how it gapped when buttoned over the pillow form.  I think this looks much neater and will hold up better in the long run.

     The client and I still need to discuss what I am going to do with her dad's ties.