making things cozy

Last week I made a sweater pillow out of my husband's old sweater. This time around I recycled one of my own, because it only seemed fair. (Ha!) I still love the stripes and the colors of the sweater, but it had seen better days. I wore it a lot!

Turning your sweater into a pillow cover is easy! I was going to do a full-blown tutorial, but I had horrible lighting for photographs (oh, how I miss the sun!) and really, it isn't that complicated. So, I'll just run through the steps quickly, because I need to enable you to do this too! And you better believe, I'm brain storming ideas for using the sleeves. :)

 

Before you get started, try the sweater on the pillow form you are going to use. (If you have kids around, this will be highly entertaining to them!) Be sure that the sweater is long and wide enough to fully cover your pillow. This sweater had a V neck, and it was JUST long enough. If you look closely at the photo above, you can see a bit of the V at the very top. I was determined to make it work!

 

1. Find a zipper slightly shorter than your pillow form.

2. Add fabric tabs to each end of the zipper. (I have a tutorial here that covers that step, just be sure that you do not follow the zipper length in the tutorial.) The zipper with tabs should be approximately the length of your pillow form.

3. Trim tabs even with the width of your zipper if you haven't done so already.

4. Turn the sweater inside out and cut off the sleeves.

5. Sew the zipper into the bottom of the sweater as shown in the photo below. The right side of the zipper should be facing the right sides of the sweater. I would recommend keeping the ribbing from the bottom of the sweater in tact if at all possible. It makes things so much easier! (I didn't even use a zipper foot, just my regular piecing foot. )

6. Use a ruler and a chalk marker to mark a square that corresponds to the size of your pillow form. Keep in mind that the sweater will stretch a little bit, so you can err on the small side, but just a bit.

7. Open the zipper at least half way.

8. Sew on the marked lines. Back stitch at the beginning and ending of each seam.

9. Cut off the excess sweater bulk, leaving a 1/2" seam allowance.

10. Try it on the pillow form.
11. Take in the seams a bit if necessary.

Here is the zipper installed. No zipper top stitching necessary. (YAY!)

Using a striped sweater was a bit tricky compared to using a solid colored sweater, but all in all, I think it turned out pretty good! This is a very fun and quick project! No interfacing or extra materials necessary.

Because I'm sure someone will ask about pillow forms....I make my own using the tutorial here.

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments!

Oh, and I would recommend getting permission from the owner of the sweater before turning it into a pillow. It's good to keep the peace. :)

Happy Monday to you!