Recycled T-shirt Pillow Form: How To

 How to Make a Recycled T-shirt Pillow Form

Materials Needed:

A clean, used T-shirt, preferably a double extra large/XXL. (An XXL t-shirt gives you the most options for a normal-sized pillow form (12"-16"), but you can use whatever you have. The smaller the shirt, the smaller the form.)

Sewing machine OR Strong Sewing Thread (I use quilting thread.) and a sewing needle

Straight pins & a Ruler with a straight edge

Scissors- nice and sharp so you can easily cut the material.

Stuffing: Repurposed Polyester Fiberfill or Rags or Yarn trash saved from finished projects or whatever you want to use for stuffing.

Instructions:

Step 1: Flatten the T-shirt- iron it if you need to/want to. Measure your pillow form size. Use straight pins to mark your edges (pinning through both layers) and use one of the folded edges as a side to cut down on the sewing. You can also use a sharpie to mark cutting lines- just make sure they are to the outside edge of the cutting area so that when you cut your form out you are cutting off the Sharpie lines. 

Step 2: Cut your form out.

Step 3: Sew three of your edges completely (if you have four open sides) and about half of the fourth side (leave it open for stuffing). If you only have three open sides, then completely sew two sides and half of the third. A sewing machine will give you the strongest seam, however, you don't have to have a sewing machine to make this work. 

Here's a great YouTube video by Nutty Crafter showing three different hand-sewing stitches. I recommend using the Back Stitch starting at 02:47 in the video. 

Step 4: Turn your pillow form inside out and carefully poke out the corners. Stuff your pillow form. Fill your form to whatever thickness you would like. Remember that overstuffing may stress your seams and T-shirt material is very stretchy.

Form inside out with corners poked.

Begin stuffing- being careful not to overstuff.

Done stuffing.

Step 5: Pin your last edges together and sew them closed. All done!

Pin edge and sew closed.

All done!

None of my cuts or seams were super perfect, so make sure you give yourself lots of grace when you are using "used" t-shirts. They have a tendency to be super stretched out and sometimes hard to get a needle through. But, recycling t-shirts and old pillow stuffing is a great way to get the most use out of what we have on hand! I hope this tutorial helps you!