How to Craft a No Sew Pillow from A Favorite T-Shirt
We all have our favorite t-shirts and some of those t-shirts are coveted a bit more sacredly than others.
In our Pittsburgh-strong sports home, we wholeheartedly embrace our sports teams and my kids love their sports t-shirts.
This year is a huge year because my one son is considering colleges and will soon be college-bound. I can’t even believe this. My DIY No Sew Pillow from a t-shirt is perfect for dorm rooms and family rooms!
Whether you are holding on to the first gift you husband, boyfriend, or partner gave you (think of Ross and Rachel on ‘FRIENDS’ and that shirt they fought over).
Maybe your kids have a team shirt they consider lucky?
Or maybe you have your favorite tee, that is torn and no longer a functional piece of your wardrobe. Now is your chance to bring it back to life!
Today I will share with you the perfect way to craft a former favorite t-shirt in a no-sew pillow!
If you want to see how to craft a no-sew pillow from a favorite t-shirt, then keep on reading.
For me, my son has to decide on a college. I know he has an up and coming dorm room to live in somewhere he is going to need to decorate it and be comfortable. Guys are a bit tougher to help decorate.
Personally, my son is a minimalist but he has never turned down a new pillow! His favorite team and shirt is the tee I will use for the craft today. This t-shirt is really special to him.
He got it for a game, that he went to, and they won. Even after that, this tee has been the coveted tee until he outgrew it!
Your story of a tee may be so different, but the thing we all have in common are those shirts, we love, don’t use and just allow to take up space in our drawers. Stop that and let’s do this craft!
STEP BY STEP: How to Craft a No-Sew Pillow from A Favorite T-Shirt
CRAFTING ITEMS FOR NEW SEW PILLOW
When I say that this is a minimalist supply list, I mean it. You can either go to the craft store to purchase a pillow or you can order from places like Amazon or Walmart and have it delivered.
I am guessing you have everything else you need right in your home! Check out the Needed list for this DIY below.
A Pair of Material Sharp Scissors
1 Ex-Large T-Shirt
Pillow (1) 36cm x 36 cm
Tape Measure
HOW TO CRAFT THE PILLOW – STEP-BY-STEP
First, you do want to make sure the shirt is clean, so wash and dry if you have to. Once done, take an old t-shirt and place it flat on the table. Next, cut off arms. Hasta la vista baby! With every snip of the scissors, you are getting closer to a new pillow. Yes, it happens this fast, amazing right?
After you take the arms off, head over to the neckline and get rid of that too. Just set these aside for now. You will NOT be using them, so you can toss them ut as well or use as rags.
Really it is this easy. Trust me, I don’t like to sew and I love projects that are fast and turn out great! This is one of those no-miss DIY projects you want to try! I wonder why I had not shared this with all of you sooner?
We all have old tees that we don’t want to part with for some reason or another, and this makes it possible to reuse, or upcycle them right? When your kids have those favorite old team shirts and beg you not to toss them, what do you do?
Try this simple no-sew pillow DIY! Pillows are always a necessity, to sit on, lay own, toss around, so this is the easy solution to dealing with both an old tee and a new pillow!
Create a Rectangle.
From the shirt, without sleeves and a neck, it is time to cut a rectangle. I suggest placing the pillow on the inside of the shirt and then leaving the edges exposed. In the end, we are in need of at least 1 1/2″ from the pillow to the edge.
Repeat this for both the front and the back pieces of shirt material. They should align fairly well too. Again, they do not need to be precise, just roughly matching.
If you want it smaller, you need to purchase a smaller pillow. In fact, if you are using kids tees you must buy a smaller pillow because there is NO way this will work (already tried, without thinking, lol).
Clearly, you can see my edges are rough. The craft is not about being so precise, it is more about reusing something you love. Give new life to old clothing and turn it into something useful, rather than a wadded up item in your drawer.
Freehanded scissor cuts make this truly unique. Your shirt will be different from others making this craft. No one will be the same unless you decide on making 2 of the same!
Let’s review really quickly
Other than cutting into shape and keep those soon to be tassles at a fairly consistent length in order to tie, there really are no directions to follow that make this right or wrong.
This May Be The Biggest Challenge of the Project
Measure from outside of pillow to end of the material this is determining what the strips will be (these are what you will tie the pillow off with.)
Once you decide on the strip size based on how much material you have left after the pillow is BETWEEN the 2 pieces of fabric.
YOU will not cut all the strips, instead, you need to CUT the four corners first. So drop those scissors and scroll below this picture to find out what to do!
STOP those scissors until you read below about The CORNER MEASUREMENTS below the next picture here. Then come back and continue on with cutting strips!
Strips will average 2″ & to about 3″ long and you will cut through BOTH pieces of fabric (you will tie these into knots later).
Some of the strips may not be quite the same length that is OK. Trust me it does not matter, my strips are NEVER even.
THE CORNER MEASUREMENT MATTERS *
Use that measurement to cut out every corner of the square.
If you make 2 1/4″ tie strands then, each corner is cut 2 1/4″ by 2 1/4″ that is your RULE to follow. Continuity of size must continue in order to make this all turn out right. Beyond that, how many knots you tie in each strip is your choice.
Trust me, there’s really no wrong way to tie either because you have to tie these together. Fast. Easy. Simple. It’s not a challenging DIY or Craft but the end product is perfection!
Cut the strips on all 4 sides and tie knots out of every matching strip set until you have it all tied off. This part of the pillow process took me the longest. However, I was also answering phone calls, getting texts for pickups from kids at sports and trying to cook a meal.
Even though all of that if this took me an hour total, that is not a lot of time. We make these often, especially when the kids don’t want to part with their lucky sports shirts. Pillows are great items to have around in every room!
HAND OVER THE PILLOW
Now it is time to send the pillow off to its rightful owner and I bet he or she will ask for another! The end result is a great pillow that can be tossed around, laid on, or even used for a pet. There are a lot of different sized craft pillows, so shop around and see. Make different sizes and then scatter them or hand them out.
When these get dirty or have been used a lot, simply toss into the laundry on the delicate cycle, and air dry. Fast, and easy and no worries that the shirt will shrink, it’s already old and used! Enjoy making these, and feel free to share your designs and other tips in the comment section. I would love to add some readers comments to this for other tricks of the trade! ~ Dana XO
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