The Home Front - Military Times

Thelma’s Thursday Therapy Thought

A dear Navy friend volunteers to join us with some crafty ideas each week!

Hello! My name is Thelma and I am a craft-a-holic. (Everyone say, “Hello, Thelma!!)

How are your seedlings?

If you planted right away (Friday or Saturday), you should have a few sprouts now. Good for you. Let them go just a bit more, next week we shall thin them. Keep up with the one bottle of water every day. If you have the bucket near the sun, rotate the bucket 90 degrees every day as you water it, so that the stems will grow up straight.

So, Monday night while I was listening to a book on CD and sewing some summer clothes, the LOML (love of my life) brought me his favorite old tee shirt.

“Sweetie, I love this shirt. It reminds me of a very happy time in my life. I can’t wear it anymore and I really don’t want to toss it or make it into a rag. Can you fancy it up and make something special for me? Please?”

When he looks at me like that, even after all these years I still melt.

“Of course, I can make something special. How about a pillow?”

“Awesome.”

I just happened to have a pillow form from the fabric store (my second favorite place to shop). About 10 bucks, this is an already formed throw pillow, 14 inches by 14 inches. Probably, I could have found a regular throw pillow at my general dollar value store, but it was late.

This project took me about an hour, as I have a sewing machine. You can turn your beloved old tee shirts into pillows even if you don’t have a sewing machine, though it will take you a bit longer. (I like projects for ship bound folks, and barracks dwellers)

You will need a spool of thread the color of your shirt, some good fabric- cutting scissors, a sharp needle (quilters or betweens, if shopping for them), a ruler, the pillow and a pencil. (Already you like this, as the supplies list is short!!)

Hand press the tee shirt flat on your table, and place the pillow form on the shirt. You’ll want to have the shirt right side out with the design showing so you can be sure your pillow will cover it. Remember, your shirt will stretch.

Center the pillow, and draw an outline around the pillow, onto the shirt. Trace this line about an inch outside the pillow form, as you will need seam allowance, and room for the pillow. Usually two fingers side-by-side measures just over an inch. Most rulers are in inch wide. Or you can just measure from the center of your design half the size of the pillow and add that inch or so.

Cut just outside this line, both the front and the back of the shirt. This will give you a front and back of the pillow.

Place the back of the shirt on top of the front (as if it were inside out) and sew around three sides. To sew, tie a knot in the end of the thread that isn’t in the eye of the needle. Your thread should be less than the length of your arm stretched out - - any longer and it will tangle something awful. You will have to cut and thread several times.

Start at one corner, about an inch from the side. Make small stitches, about the size of the stripe in your collar device; yes, that small.

Remember, you are holding together 2 pieces of stretchy material, over a pillow. So make the small stitches all the way up that first side. Stop about an inch or less from the end. When you reach the end, come back down that side so that your stitches fill in the blank spaces you just left. (What??)

You stitched up - - - - - - - - - -

When you come back you will fill in ———.

Ooooo.

That makes your seam more secure, holds your fabric better and really tests your patience.

When you finish that seam, make three small stitches in the exact same spot to tie off your thread. Take a break, go for a walk.

Thread up and do seam two, small stitches one way and small stitches filling in on the way back. Remember to stop about an inch from the end to allow for cornering. Now you’ve got the hang of it.

Go ahead and stitch seam three. At this point you have a pillowcase, just like you used in boot camp (seam and slack to the middle of the rack open edge to the left). Sit back and congratulate yourself. (If you have a sewing machine, you did all of this in about ten minutes, show-off!!)

Finger press your seams open so they won’t be too bulky on the pillow. This means, fold the seam flaps away from each other and press them, between your fingers. Cut the closed end corners on a diagonal but not too close. This will help them lay flat.

Gently turn the shirt/case right side out around the pillow. Gather the case like a sock, and ease it onto the pillow form. Try to keep the seams along the edge of the form – after all you worked pretty hard to get that design centered!! {If it is too tight, you can open up the pillow and pull some of the stuffing out. If too loose, stitch another round of seams inside the first, to the amount of slack. Then pick out the first row of stitches to cut off for a smaller flap.}

Here comes the most challenging part, for me. Turn under the loose end of the front (design side) of the case. Tuck the loose end of the back of the case under that flap. (Gosh, this is hard to explain without you seeing my hands.)

What you are doing is simulating the seams that you just made, but from the other side of the case. So you want the back of the fabric to meet the front of the fabric, on the front side of the pillow. You want to sew that last seam together, as you did the others, but while the case is on the pillow. And you don’t want any cut edges of the fabric to show.
So, you tuck under the front flap, and then you tuck the back flap in between the pillow and the front flap. Fiddle about with it until you have it, you will.

As you sew this seam, pay close attention to the stitches and try to make them all exactly the same size. It is unlikely that anyone will notice if the stitches aren’t perfect, but these are the stitches that people will see. Be careful to NOT stitch the case to the pillow.

Place these stitches as close to the edge as possible; if you are lucky, they will roll under to the back as the pillow is tossed around on your rack.

To tie off your thread, make your three little stitches, then poke the threaded needle into and through the pillow. Tug on the thread and cut close to the surface. The thread will disappear back into the pillow, hidden but secure.

You may now sit back and admire your handiwork.

Congratulations, you can sew, you are decorating your space, and you are recycling. Good on you. You just have to figure out how you can work this into your evaluation!! Maybe if you make lots, and donate them you are a do-gooder. If you sell them you are an entrepreneur.

Good luck and happy stitching!

Have a question for Thelma? Post them in the “comment” section and she’ll get back to you…feel free to post comments and ideas there, also.

{Big Wave} Thanks so much, Thelma…see you next Thursday!

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