Happy hump-day, friends! Hope your week is going wonderfully!

Back in August I promised to share a new craft project that I did to “upcycle” two t-shirts that no longer fit … sorry for the delay, but I bring it to you now! This might be a neat Christmas gift to get a head start on. It’s simple and straightforward — even if you don’t have much sewing expertise, I guarantee you can do this project!

I made this t-shirt pillow for my brother {that’s one of his running icons, Steve Prefontaine, pictured on the front.} I made another pillow for myself out of an old, too-small t-shirt with a book-cover of Catcher in the Rye on the front. Both turned out great!

Here’s what you need:
– a t-shirt
– a needle and thread
– scissors
– stuffing*

* I went out and bought a bag of pillow stuffing from a craft store. But I also had some old, torn socks I wanted to upcycle. So I used scissors to cut up the socks into tiny pieces and mixed them in with the store-bought stuffing. It worked out very well and made the stuffing go further!

Directions:

1. Turn the t-shirt inside-out and mark with a pencil the dimensions you’d like your pillow to be. Use a ruler to draw the lines straight and even.

2. Pin the fabric just inside the lines so it will stay together as you sew.

3. Cut the extra material off the shirt {i.e. necklines, sleeves, etc.}

4. Sew three sides of the pillow, leaving the top open.

5. Turn the pillow inside-out and fill with your desired amount of stuffing.

6. Carefully sew the top of the pillow closed.

TA-DA! Now you have a fun, attention-grabbing, conversation-starting new pillow to display or to give as a gift.

you might also enjoy these crafty posts:
– diy no-sew baby blanket
– homemade photo collage poster
– adorable homemade owl
– upcycled gift containers