Sweater Pillow

 

Finished sweater pillow

     The second pillow I made for my client, was out of an old sweater that her dad loved.  Since it wasn't that big, I had to carefully undo all the seams so I would have big enough pieces.

Blocked and ready for stabilizer

Ready to fuse the stabilizer on

       After carefully dismantling the sweater, I laid the front onto my ironing board and blocked it.  I then laid a large piece of fusible stabilizer from Rowley Company.  I pressed it in place, starting from the center and moving to the edges.  I repeated this with the back piece.  Now it was ready to cut.

Trimming the corners

      I cut two squares, 18 inches.  Then I used my 'dog ear' trimmer template from Home Sewing Depot to trim the corners.  

Front with the covered cord in place

     I then made covered cord from the sleeves that I had also applied the fusible stabilizer to.  I had to join several pieces to get enough fabric to cover the cord.  I stitched that in place to the front.

Prepping the label to sew it on

     Using my software, I sized down a quilt label from Embroidery Library and added the lettering using a small font in MasterWorks.  I stitched it out on muslin, using a thread that closely matched the sweater color.  Because the sweater was ribbed, I felt the lettering would get lost so that I why I chose a label instead of stitching directly onto the sweater.  I used wash-away Wonder Tape to hold it in place while I stitched it to the back piece.

Ready to sew together

     I then pinned the front and back together and stitched around, leaving an opening to turn and stuff the pillow form inside.  I then hand sewed the opening closed.

Back of the pillow

Cording detail

Label detail

     I love that people trust me to make special things for them from treasured items of their loved ones.