Got Blood? An Afternoon Craft

In my closet has been a T Shirt that my dad gave to me, oh let us say 2 years ago. Sure. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to make a pillow out of it. So there it sat. Until today. If you find yourself with some free time (about 30min) and the following items laying around your house, I challenge you to make one!


What you need:
-A pillow
-A T Shirt (that you WANT to cut up)
-Scissors
-Aileen's Tacky Glue OR Needle/Thread
-Some creativity

First off I needed a pillow- so I picked one up at Ikea (*swoon*) the other weekend for $5. The TShirt I had in mind was black with a Red/White design. I opted for the red pillow as the background (although there were also black, navy, green, and off white).

Don't mind my arm there. 

Anywho, next I needed to work out the details of cutting up the shirt.

 

I cut the small blood drop out of the back of the shirt. Then cut the front of the shirt off so it was easier to work with. After I got that off, I went in closer around the design, but not so close as to risk cutting into it. 

T Shirt material is a slippery/stretchy foe.

My mangled shirt.

What I learned from cutting this out was my mom's new scissors were no match for my safety scissors from elementary school. The large ones worked well enough for cutting the front of the T Shirt off but were terrible for cutting closer to the design.

See my sticker label on the green ones had my name on them!

Now that everything is cut out how I like it, it was time for some fun with tacky glue! TACKY is an understatement. Maybe its the fact that my mom has had this glue sitting in the cabinet for an eternity, or the name of it is spot on. Either way, it beat the alternative to trying to sew both pieces on by hand.

Could I do it you ask? Yes. Did I want to? No, not really.

For about 20-30min worth of work, I know own the coolest Halloween pillow ever! So thanks Dad for the shirt. :)

 This is actually my second attempt at turning an old shirt into a new pillow. I can't find pictures of the first right now. Sadface. It was much more labor intensive, as I simply cut the front and back of the t-shirt off and hand stitched them back together to form a square pillow cover for a pillow I again bought at Ikea. (It is possible I need to get a sewing machine.) Surprisingly it turned out quite nice, but alas you won't get to see it here. I, for one, am feeling accomplished for the day.

Tell me, what items have you picked up from around the house and made into something new? Or share your T-Shirt-to-pillow success stories here!