Sweater Pillow

Sweater pillow

 

     A client brought me her mom's sweater and wanted it made into a pillow.  She wanted to preserve the pockets if possible.

Puckered front

     In evaluating the sweater, I found the grosgrain ribbon on the front edges had shrunk and/or the sweater stretched out.  The only way to get the fronts to lie flat was to snip the ribbon.  I couldn't remove it because the buttonholes were sewn through it.

Snipping the grosgrain ribbon

     Snipping the ribbon din't totally alleviate the problem so I used steam to block the sweater and 'shrink' it up some.  Then I ironed on a fusible backing to stabilize the pieces before cutting them to size.  I also stitched the front closed so it wouldn't gape between the buttons.

Blocked sweater front

    As it was quite a lightweight sweater I added a napped lining to give it more body.  I cut off the corners to prevent 'dog ears' and serged the lining to the stabilized sweater.  I did cut the front slightly off center to allow for one full pocket and the other was a partial pocket.

Pocket detail

     The back was just a full piece with fused stabilizer and lining.  I did hand sew it closed, no zipper.  I do think a nicer pillow form would have made a nicer pillow but I went with what I was given.

Back of the pillow