T-Shirt Pillow Tutorial for Classroom Library

Pin It

At our school, the students in third-sixth grades design t-shirts each May as part of a t-shirt/school theme contest.  The office staff narrows the designs down to about twelve and then the entire school gets to vote on a winner.  The winning t-shirt becomes our school’s slogan for the next year.  Students and staff get the free t-shirt on the first day of school the following year. After teaching several years, I had a stack of old shirts.  I thought about making a blanket or quilt out of them someday, but then decided I had a more immediate use… pillows for our library!

The students love using them for reading workshop, and they’re cheaper than the fancy store bought pillows.  As a bonus, the shirts are easy to slip on/off and can be machine washed.  I just run the shirts through the sewing machine in three places, add snaps, and stuff away.  I used old bed pillows for the body and a little polyfill for the sleeves.  If you don’t have any old bed pillows, I purchased a few at Wal-Mart for $3 each.  Can’t beat that!  

Here’s How:

• Turn the t-shirt inside out.
• Sew each sleeve shut straight across the hem.  Remember to back-stitch at both ends to reinforce the seam.
• Sew the bottom of the shirt closed along the hem. Again, remember to back-stitch.
• Turn the t-shirt right-side out again.

• Add three snaps along the collar to keep the pillow closed.  The snaps are perfect because they keep the t-shirt in place during use, but also allow it to be removed for washing.  I purchased no-sew snaps at Hobby Lobby and was able to attach them with a pair of my husband’s pliers. I found similar ones on Amazon if you aren’t sure what I’m talking about.
• Slide a fluffy bed pillow into the t-shirt.
• Use polyfill to stuff the sleeve area of the shirt.  This makes the sleeves stand out nicely.  
• Close your snaps.  Tada!

Pin It

Looking for other pillow ideas?  I had a couple older t-shirts that coworkers had given me from before I started teaching.  They were pretty worn out, but I was able to save the design portion and turn them into square pillows.  I also used cheap bandanas from Hobby Lobby to make large square pillows.  Now I have enough for each student to have something to use during reading workshop independent reading time.  No more fighting or rotating schedules AND I didn’t break the bank in the process.  Love that! 

Like this how-to?  Stay tuned for my crate seat tutorial.