Memory pillow

When my father-in-law died in 2019, one of his daughters, my sister-in-law Linda, saved one of his heavy plaid flannel Wrangler shirts with the idea of making it into a memory pillow, and I was honored when Linda asked me if I would be willing to make the pillow for her.

With a quick Google search for "memory pillow" or "how to make memory pillow," you will easily find many examples and tutorials for how to make one like this.

I was fairly sure how to go about it, but I watched this video tutorial by Lesley Chandler on YouTube to have the steps clear in my mind before starting.

To make one of these, you need to know the basic skills for working with a sewing machine. You're basically cutting two squares out of the shirt and then sewing them together to make a cover that will fit a square pillow form. If you're using a button-front shirt like I did, you don't even need to leave a gap in the sewing for turning the pieces right-side out, because the shirt's button front can serve that purpose. And, in the future, you can also open the buttons to remove the pillow form any time you want to launder the pillow cover, so it's a win-win.

Begin by laying the shirt out flat, with all the buttons buttoned, on a large tabletop. Iron the shirt to help the fabric lie evenly if it has any wrinkles. I measured the distance across the front between the sleeve seams to get an idea of what the largest size pillow cover that the shirt would make. It was about 18 inches between the sleeve seams across the front. 

I had an extra 18-inch square Ikea feather pillow form on hand that I wanted to use for this project. Knowing that the finished pillow cover will be less than the full dimensions of the cut fabric (because of the amount taken up by the seam allowances), I figured that my finished pillow cover would juuuust barely be large enough to work with that pillow form. But square pillow forms come in different sizes, so you should be able to find one that will fit your particular pillow cover.

You can make the cutting easier by first cutting a piece of newspaper into the shape/dimensions to act as the pattern. Since the distance between the sleeve seams was 18 inches, I decided to cut an 18-inch square to be my pattern. 

I laid the shirt out flat on a cutting mat on my work table and positioned the pattern on top. I adjusted the position of the pattern until I had it where I wanted it, using the placement of the shirt pockets as a guide to where the pattern should be placed. When I was happy with the placement, I pinned the pattern in place and used my fabric scissors to carefully cut around the pattern. You could use a rotary cutter and ruler if you're comfortable with those. I have those tools but didn't want to risk making a bad cut on this precious shirt.

After the pieces are cut, set aside the pattern and excess fabric. Turn the pillow cover squares so the right sides are facing each other and pin them together. Then sew them together using an appropriate seam allowance, carefully easing the machine through the bulkier areas across the button placket. I used about a 1/4-inch seam allowance for this.

 

After sewing all the way around, trim the excess fabric at the corners. Then unbutton the shirt's buttons and turn the pillow cover right-side out, using a blunt tool to help poke out the corners. Rebutton the buttons and press the sewn pillow cover again to smooth the seams.

The final step is to open the buttons again and place the pillow form inside. Button the buttons, and you now have a wonderful memory pillow of your loved one's shirt that you can hug whenever you want to.

In her video tutorial, Lesley Chandler shared that there are sellers on Etsy who make custom iron-on patches with a lovely little verse that can be added to a memory pillow project. She suggested this one and placed it on a bottom-front corner of her pillow. I think the patch would also work on a bottom corner of the back side of the pillow. 

I wasn't sure if Linda would want a patch like that on her pillow, however, so I sent her a link to it so she could see what it was and read about it, and then decide if she wanted it. She could always opt to add a patch to her pillow cover later, because the only equipment needed to add it is an iron.

After completing the memory pillow, I looked at the fabric scraps left over and decided there was plenty of fabric left to make a small memento for each of my father-in-law's four children, including Linda, my husband, and their other two sisters. I figured a keychain wristlet would be lovely and useful, and I already had the clasp hardware on hand.

I like this tutorial by Devi Therkildsen on YouTube for making "seamless" fabric wristlets that work with the type of clasp hardware I have on hand. Each wristlet requires a piece of fabric that's 12 inches long by 4 inches wide, and also a piece of lightweight interfacing of the same size if your fabric is lightweight. (I didn't use interfacing on these flannel wristlets because the fabric itself was already heavy enough to be durable.) You can see the four finished wristlets next to the finished memory pillow in the lead photo of this post.

Hoodie gusset

My favorite alumni hoodie sweatshirt was just a tad too tight to be comfortable, so I did a lot of looking online for ideas on how to make it fit with more positive ease.

After watching many, many sewing video tutorials about adding a gusset, I felt confident enough to attempt it on my hoodie. The risk was that this line of hoodies was a one-time purchase done by my alumni association, so if I messed this one up, I wouldn't be able to buy another one just like it again. So that was scary, because I like my hoodie.

Once I had the process set in my mind, the next step was to find the right fabric. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted a nice windowpane plaid flannel fabric that incorporated the green from my hoodie with some blue and gold and white. I found a fabric I liked on eBay and bought 1/2 yard, which would give me just enough to add a wide strip of gusset to each side of the hoodie.

I started deconstructing the hoodie by carefully picking out the stitches holding the cuffs to the ends of the sleeves, so I could reattach the cuffs after adding the gussets. I envisioned the gussets tapering gradually from the underarm area to the wrist, where there would be very little gusset width left showing, because I didn't need to add much width to the sleeves. Also, that way, I could reattach the cuffs without having changed the width of the ends of the sleeves by much.

After removing the cuffs, the next step was cutting open the sides. (((Yikes)))

Because my hoodie had no side seams originally, the scariest part of this entire project was the actual cutting of the sides.

To make my side cuts as straight as possible, I laid the hoodie out flat on my worktable and smoothed it out until it was very even and straight. Using my sewing clips, I clipped along the fold to help hold it in place so it wouldn't shift as I was marking my line. Then I took my tailors chalk and slowly and carefully started to sketch a cutting line down each side from the point of the underarm where the sleeve's inner seam ended, bit by bit moving down the side along the fold in between the clips. After each side had a good chalk line drawn, I removed the clips and picked up my fabric scissors and took a couple of DEEP breaths.

Then I slowly and carefully cut open each side, all the way down to the end of the sleeve (cutting open the sleeves was easier, because the sleeves had seams to follow to guide my cuts).

Cutting the hoodie was REALLY scary, as I've already said. But it worked!

The next step was to prepare my flannel fabric for cutting. I measured how long each gusset piece would need to be to extend from the end of the sleeve, up the arm, and down the side to beyond the hem, leaving enough excess fabric to turn under as a hem. (I didn't remove the cuff from around the waist of the hoodie before cutting the sides; I cut through each side of that cuff along with each side.)

I wanted a 3.5-4-inch wide gusset showing on each side after sewing the pieces together. I also wanted to use flat-felled seams where I added the gussets, so the finish would be clean on both the right side and the wrong side of the hoodie, so before cutting, I had to include a sufficient amount of seam allowance to accommodate those.

I had never sewn flat-felled seams before, so I had to watch a few video tutorials for how to do that. (And then I watched them again before starting each seam - once for each of the four seams!) I found this video tutorial by Notches Sewing to be the most helpful.

Having gussets that taper down to almost nothing at the wrists made executing the flat-felled seams more difficult, but I just went slowly, and it worked out.

It took several days to finish all the sewing of the side seams, because I spent a LOT of time carefully pinning and watching the video over and over to make extra sure that I was setting myself up to do it right, and then being extra careful during the actual sewing.

Once the sides were sewn together, it was fairly straightforward to pin the cuffs back onto the ends of the sleeves and then sew them on.

And then, just like that, it was done!

I'm really pleased with how well this project turned out. My husband said it looks like the hoodie was made this way by the manufacturer, which was high praise. It turned out so well, in fact, that I think now I should buy a few more yards of the same plaid fabric and make a pair of lounge pants to coordinate with my super-cool hoodie. (I would follow this video tutorial by Sachi's Studio for making the pants!)

Shawlcowl Pullover 3.0 is live

I'm very excited to announce that the 10th anniversary updated version of my Shawlcowl Pullover pattern is now live! If you've already purchased the pattern, you should have received a message by email and/or in your Ravelry inbox with a link to the updated version 3.0.

Version 3.0 of the pattern includes instructions to make three beautiful but slightly different variations of the Shawlcowl Pullover, as well as the bonus instructions for how to add length to all of them, should you wish to do so. 

This is the Shawlcowl 3 knitted in Red Heart Super Saver Ombre in the True Blue colorway. It includes the added length, whose steps are explained in the version 3.0 pattern, and also a 2/4 picot bind off (links to picot bind-off instructions also in the pattern).

If you haven't tried my pattern yet, here's a button with a link to where you can purchase it, even if you don't have a Ravelry account:

Thanks so, SO MUCH for your support, everyone! 💜 Words are inadequate to express how grateful I am to each of you for all the beautiful Shawlcowl projects you've made and shared over the past 10 years, as well as all your messages with questions and/or words of encouragement. Here's to another 10 years of this fun pattern!

Celebrating 10 years of Shawlcowl Pullover

I first released my Shawlcowl Pullover pattern in April 2014, and in the years since then, I have had some requests to write up instructions for how to add length to the original pattern, and I will admit that this was something I had been thinking about doing even before anyone asked me about it.

Challenge accepted!

Although I totally overlooked (oops!!) the opportunity I had earlier this year to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the release of Shawlcowl Pullover, I decided that it’s never too late to release an updated version of the pattern that includes these bonus, optional instructions for how to add length to the design.

Version 3.0 of the pattern will include instructions to make three beautiful but slightly different variations of the Shawlcowl Pullover, as well as the bonus instructions for how to add length to all of them, should you wish to do so.

The updated pattern will be released soon on Ravelry. So if you already own a previously released version of the pattern, keep your eyes out for Version 3.0 to land in your pattern library. And if you haven't already purchased the pattern, head on over to Ravelry and grab your copy now — you'll also receive the Version 3.0 update in your pattern library as soon as it's available!

Thanks so, SO MUCH for your support, everyone! 💜 Words are inadequate to express how grateful I am to each of you for all the beautiful Shawlcowl projects you've made and shared over the past 10 years, as well as all your messages with questions and/or words of encouragement. Here's to another 10 years of this fun pattern!

Pink blanket for great-grandaughter

This is going to be a Christmas gift for my great-granddaughter Lilliana, who loooves pink! The blanket used less than 4 skeins, so I'm using the last part of the fourth skein to also make a matching pink Mini Dino for her. 💜 This is a great design to give as a gift to any young person because it's easy to crochet, and the infinite pathways contained in the blanket represent the infinite potential in every young person's life. I absolutely love that symbolism and message.

I followed the method shown in this video by Fiber Spider. Blanket is worked with 39 pattern rounds followed by 1 round of solid DC and then edged with a border of RSC (reverse single crochet, also known as crab stitch). So, essentially, 40 rounds plus the edging. Here's the link to my Ravelry project page, which has details about the yarn and hook I used.

I've made this design several times, and I like that the rounds begin/end at a corner, but I think if I ever make another one, I'm going to attempt to do it in turned rounds, where there is no obvious right side/wrong side.