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.
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.
How to Craft a No-Sew Pillow from A Favorite T-Shirt
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
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?
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?
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
Disclosure ~ If a purchase is made using one of the affiliate links on this website we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
Awesome! I was never good with needles and this is a very clever idea! Now I think I know what I can give as presents to my friends this Christmas without any cost but full of effort and creativity!
Woow, this is a definite yes for me. Now i know what to do with all that old t-shirts i bundled at the end of my drawer. And good luck to your son as he heads out to college.
TY. Let me know how your project goes.
I will definitely make one from my favorite soccer team #Manchester united. Can this method be used for football jersey which are not cotton or will they get spoiled for nothing? Am troubled.
I think you can use this on ANY material. I chose cotton because if it is not cotton it is not against my skin. As long as you can cut it you can use it:) Let me know how it turns out
wow it’s so simple and easy to make the pillow case. Awesome idea and thanks I have to try it out.
Am going to try this with one of my t-shirt and see what the result will be like. The steps are easy to follow I can admit that.
Its so nice to read this when you are about to throw away one of your favorite t-shirt. I mean now am going to have so many pillows in my room.
LOL. Use the other teeshirts to stuff the pillows as a tip too:) rather than buying a blank pillow insert.:)
Nice hack! This is a good idea how to remake old clothes of my dad! Haha. I bet he would love to see his old favorite clothe turned into a pillowcase. Thank you for this no-sew easy DIY trick (because I don’t actually know how to sew). Haha. This is cool!
IT is so easy and I love the NO Sew part:)
Now I know what to do with my old shirt. Instead of tossing them out I can donate them to charity or do something like this. Good stuff thanks.
So glad I found this. My mom is into these types of skills. I feel bad for the good looking shirt though.
This is perfect to those who are afraid of needles! Very creative and super easy to make. It can be a perfect gift this Christmas, it’s personalized and at the same time very cheap.
This is a very helpful tip to me. I have a lot of shirts that just sit in the closet. You gave me an amazing idea what to do with them. I also appreciate that I don’t need to sew it, cuz I don’t know how to sew.
IT is fast and easy and priceless
I love your tutorial. I didn’t expect that I can transform my old t-shirts into a pillow case. I want to try this next cleaning time.
“you are recycling your t-shirt rather than tossing it out, so a crafty reuse is perfect.” What I think that, it’s good idea for reusing old clothing. It can help for environment.
A fantastic way to use my old shirts. Pillow cases are usually styled up and this would be the best way.
This is an ingenious idea! Thanks so much for this post! I now know what to do with my old shirts that I don’t use anymore.
This sounds like a really good idea! Will definitely try this one of these days!
I like this. No more buying of Pillow cases. Lemme just embrace this.
Woow! I love this creativity. I perceive that one can undo the knots for laundry purposes, right?
Been wanting to add more pillows to my bed but haven’t had the time to buy. Good thing I came across this post. We got lots of old shirts and maybe if I’m imaginative enough I can make the other shirts into a pillow and the chosen shirt I want can be the cover!
You will love how easy it is to do
This is so cool! I will try to do this at home. My dad has a lot of T-shirts that he doesn’t wear anymore. 😀
Such a fun DIY! I wondered how you could create a pillow without sewing only to find out that you have to tie the sides at the end. Genius!
This is a cool idea and a great way to recycle old clothes. Love it!
Wow! This is such a creative way to upcycle an old shirt! Will give this a try as I have an old shirt I didnt want to throw away but is too small for me now.
Simply Wow! I got so many t-shirts to throw away but I guess I just read this article on time 🙂 This is such a cool way to be make something creative and useful at the same time. I am gonna try this for sure, hope my final products looks as good as yours. Thank you for sharing this amazing DIY with us.
This is so easy to make without sew and a good use of the t-shirt also. Thanks for sharing. would love to try this!
That’s genius, we have a lot of shirts that we don’t use it anymore and i think this would be a great way to use them instead of throwing them!
I love how easy this is! Now I am thinking about all of the favorite shirts we can make into lasting memories by turning them into pillows. Fantastic idea!
What a clever idea! This would be perfect for shirts that might not fit right but you still love!
First I gotta learn how to sew – but it does look very easy for even me to do 🙂
I wanna do this now, you’re an inspiration, the transformation is SO creative, thanks for sharing, keep it up!! we all want to do this now xx
Hey! This is awesome! Great job on this post and so detailed. I love what you did there.
I love this easy no sew craft! I think this would be better that to keep on buying throw pillow covers. We do have some of our favorite shirts that no longer fit, so I will gather them and make some pillows! Thanks for sharing this easy DIY craft idea.
You are welcome good luck with your DIY Pillows
Great idea! Love it so much that I have pinned it for later reference but I think I will be making one right now. For someone who has managed to make a crocheted bed cover this is super easy. Thank-you so much for sharing.
That is a very cool project. I know that I have done stuff like that with my daughter’s shirts before, creating the ruffles or ends there. But I didn’t think about doing that with a pillow. I will have to show this to my daughter.
Now David you have a new trick to try:)
I love this idea and repurposing shirts is an even better idea as we have loads I was going to chuck out! Now I have a use for them!
Pillows are amazingly easy to make. Let me know how yours turnout
This sounds ands looks amazing. You make it look so easy. I wish I was good at crafts.
This is such a simple idea for something which looks so good x
I love making these, fast, easy and thoughtful. good luck with your diy:)
When I was just learning how to sew, my grandma and I made things like this all of the time. I remember she piled all of the pillows onto her sofa and many of them were still there years later. Thanks for the fun memories .. made me smile. x
I am so glad to hear that it brought back memories, and I hope you make one too, (again)
Thats such a brilliant idea. Wonder why we threw away all the old ones when we could have used for a pillow cover!
That’s why I reuse them, it just makes good sense.
Woah I love how you transformed an old T-Shirt into a totally rad pillowcase that is pretty cool. Even better that you have given us a tutorial and that it is no sew as well.
I am all about the No Sew, because I once Double Stitched and arm 6 times:)
Interesting way of doing it, I know I hate sewing in my off time. I have a few cool graphic tees that would make great accent pillows. I might need to try this.
Try it out, fast and easy and NO Sew:_)
What a clever idea! I have used this technique to make a dog pillow. It is a quick and easy craft to do. Can’t wait to try it with a t-shirt.
Kathy, this is so easy to do and a great reuse of favorite tees. Let me know how yours turns out. DANA