before + after: From kids t-shirt to cushion

The weather is really warming up in my part of the world so I started going through the kids summer clothes to see if anything still fitted. My daughter (nearly 2) was helping me and she stumbled upon her favourite (like ever!) Minnie Mouse t-shirt which of course was far too small for her but she insisted on trying to put it on and then took it bed that night.

 I thought wouldn't it be nice to turn it into a cushion. It turned out to be a super easy project which I am sure would work for a lot of t-shirts which have a central image.

Here she is wearing it about a year ago...

Here is what I did....

I turned the t-shirt inside out on a flat surface and was lucky enough to see the image clearly so roughly pinned the front to the back around Minnie's face.

 

Then with about an inch gap I followed the shape of the face around using a black marker. You could use a pencil or fading fabric marker too.

Then I sewed around following the inside of the black pen and left a 2 inch gap at the side for stuffing.

Trimmed around it...

I turned it out the right way to make sure I was happy with the shape, then turned it inside out again and did an extra row of stitching to give it a bit of strength. Then turned is right side out, trimmed closer to the stitching and clipped the corners (accidently deleted the photo of this step!), stuffed it with polyfill and ladder stitched it closed.

Instant cushion!

 

My daughter LOVES it and I couldn't get a decent photo of her posing with Minnie because she was too busy giving her new pillow kisses.

 

Here is the cushion on her new big girls bed which is currently a mattress on the floor because she is always falling off it. As you can see Minnie has also made an appearance on the bed linen too!

 

This was honestly a really easy project which took about half an hour and cost nothing but made a wee girl very happy! Give it a go with your childs favourite t-shirt. If you do I would love to see a photo of the result.